One Thankful Nicu Nurse Fall T-Shirt

One Thankful Nicu Nurse Fall T-Shirt

Buy it: One Thankful Nicu Nurse Fall T-Shirt Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the One Thankful Nicu Nurse Fall T-Shirt city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. One Thankful Nicu Nurse Fall T-Shirt Buy it: One Thankful Nicu Nurse Fall T-Shirt Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the One Thankful Nicu Nurse Fall T-Shirt city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it.

One Thankful Nicu Nurse Fall T-Shirt - from teesam.info 1

Buy it: One Thankful Nicu Nurse Fall T-Shirt Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the One Thankful Nicu Nurse Fall T-Shirt city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. One Thankful Nicu Nurse Fall T-Shirt Buy it: One Thankful Nicu Nurse Fall T-Shirt Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the One Thankful Nicu Nurse Fall T-Shirt city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “COVID has shaken up the world, and we want everyone to be able to take care of themselves on their own, in the best possible way.” Fresh, which features a custom-fitted mouthguard hooked up to a device that pumps a minty cleansing solution between your teeth, operates on a 7-second cycle, and cleanses around your teeth and underneath your gum line. “It’s very similar to a Waterpik,” Gurenlian explains, “but you are running that from tooth to tooth, on your own. This is done for you, on all of your teeth, at once. It takes away user error.” “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. While dealing with dark and violent subject matter, Promising Young Woman manages to be stunningly beautiful in its contradictions and complexities. The dichotomy of Cassie—both saccharine sweet and lethally poisonous—is entrenched in every facet of the film, from the vivid ’80s-inspired set design and its emphasis on red and blue colors to the soundtrack, which revives Paris Hilton’s sugary pop wonder “Stars Are Blind” and introduces a hair-raising orchestral cover of Britney Spear’s “Toxic.” Her wardrobe oscillates between sweet, feminine pastel clothes and wicked, come-hither costumes by night. This dramatic chasm drives Cassie’s beauty too. During the day, Cassie looks like a millennial Brigitte Bardot with kitten flicks, a muted pink pout, and a tumble of voluminous blonde waves, which are sometimes topped off with a petal pink silk ribbon or a wide sky blue headband. “When you see her as normal coffee shop girl Cassie, she’s very natural,” says makeup artist Angie Wells, who played up Mulligan’s natural glow with bare-looking skin and dabs of sheer, cool pink Kosas’s LipFuel balm in Rush on the mouth. But when Cassie morphs into one of her after-dark characters? “Her makeup is stronger, glossier, and smeared,” says Wells, who emphasized Mulligan’s eyes by intentionally melting her black mascara and haphazardly smudging MAC’s Pro Longer Fluidline in Blacktrack in a droopier, downturned shape for a “sad eyeliner” effect. For the lips it was about drawing on different shapes in bolder crimson colors or adding a frosted effect with shades such as MAC’s sheeny Lustre lipstick in pearl pink Pretty Please. The only through line between day and night is an Easter egg–colored manicure. “The reality is she’s packaging herself as this person that looks like an easy mark for a guy that sees an opportunity for himself,” explains Wells. “This makeup is being used for sexual appeal, but it also showcases what is happening with her mentally.” It’s during the film’s third act that Cassie’s above-neck theatrics reach a fever pitch. She attends a bachelor party dressed as a candy striper with cartoonish makeup and colorful, acid-bright hair. “It’s a bit of The Joker reigning mayhem,” says hairstylist Daniel Curet, who worked to bring Fennell’s vision for this scene to life by splicing two different candy-colored fantasy wigs together to achieve the right mix of fringe, texture, and colors. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “It took five months to prepare before we went to shoot. The costume team came to 238 people. This is inclusive of the pattern cutters, the extraordinary Mr Pearl who was our corset maker, a tailoring department, an embellishing department, embroiderers and my co-captain John Glaser, among others. It was like a Bridgerton city of elves working continuously and they were brilliant. In the end, there were about 7,500 pieces — from hats to shawls, to overcoats — that made up the [estimated] 5,000 costumes that went before the camera. For Phoebe [Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton] alone, there were 104 costumes. That’s a big number, even for a principal player.” “I looked at the Regency period in London through drawings and paintings. We got a flavor of it and then it was about looking at the different silhouettes and shapes while knowing that this had to be aspirational, as opposed to historically accurate. We knew that we had to shift the color palette and the fabrications, so from the 19th century, I immediately went to the 1950s and 1960s. The Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at [London’s] Victoria & Albert Museum provided a wealth of inspiration. We looked at Dior dresses, from the New Look [1947] to the present day.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” “The Featheringtons are new money and [the mother] Portia [played by Polly Walker] needs to marry her daughters off. She sets the tone for them as a family and their color palette is overly citrus because she wants those girls to be seen. It might be too much, but that’s not on purpose. She thinks they look beautiful. Portia wears these prints and often you’re not sure if she’s more like Joan Collins or Elizabeth Taylor. They’re bolder, brighter and more brazen than everyone else, and everything is overly embellished. They just don’t know any better.” “I love Queen Charlotte [played by Golda Rosheuvel]. The real Queen Charlotte was known for never changing her silhouette from when she became queen in the 18th century. So, it was quite elaborate between her gowns, the trims and her hair, which changes all the time. She looks like cotton candy in every conceivable flavor. For me, she embodies what Bridgerton is all about.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Kelly Fields would know. The owner of Willa Jean Bakery, she sells more than 10,000 cookies a week from her New Orleans shop. (Yes, they’re really that good: in 2019, Fields won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.) So when she published her critically lauded cookbook, The Good Book of Southern Baking, she made sure to feature lots of cookies, including the recipe for her signature sugar cookie. “These are literally an all-occasion cookie for celebrating,” she says. Whereas parties are out of the question this December, baking scrumptious treats (even if it’s just for one or two) is an easy way to make holidays feel, well, like the holidays. Below, we share Fields’s recipe. It makes 48—which is a lot nowadays. But, as Fields explains, “If you don’t need it all, leftovers freeze really well and can be saved for the next holiday cooking-decorating bonanza.” 1. Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the cream cheese until combined. Decrease the speed to low and slowly beat in the egg and vanilla, incorporating well. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until a dough forms. 2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it a few times by hand. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until ready to roll out, at least 15 minutes or up to overnight. You can also freeze the dough for up to 1 month. 3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1⁄3 inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter (or a cookie cutter of your choice) and cut out as many cookies as possible; transfer to the prepared baking sheets. These cookies won’t really spread much, so fitting 18 to 24 on a tray is completely reasonable. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out more cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden. 4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet as you roll out and bake the second batch. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and continue, baking the remaining cookie dough.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” 5. Make the royal icing. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the egg whites and vanilla on medium-high speed until they start to froth, about 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and slowly stream in the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, stream in the water, return the mixer to high speed, and whip until the icing is shiny and smooth. This icing should be used immediately. You can divide it up, add food coloring as desired, and fill pastry bags to decorate your cookies. If you don’t have pastry bags, place the icing in heavy-duty resealable bags and cut off one corner to pipe the icing onto the cookies. 6. Let the cookies rest until the icing is set, about 1 hour. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. To get nice clean edges when decorating cookies, it’s always a great idea to pipe an outline around the cookie, let it set just slightly, and then fill in the middle. Ice the cookies solid white, then use paintbrushes to paint and decorate! You can hand-paint the iced cookies with food coloring slightly diluted with any clear spirit (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates as it dries). Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Lamine Badian Kouyaté’s Xuly-Bët spring 1995 ready-to-wear collection was presented in September 1994 at Le Palace nightclub in Paris. Xuly-Bët’s Lamine Badian Kouyaté radiates positivity—which, time has proven, has nothing to do with the fact that he once had a studio in the disused radiology department of the Hôpital Ephemere. Rather he sees riches and possibility where others see rags. Born in Mali, Kouyaté moved to France to study architecture and edged his way into fashion in ways that feel very of this moment. His first shows were guerilla pop-ups: He transported models in buses to walk outside of bigger designers’ events. He aligned himself with the street through collaborations with artists. And most significant, Kouyaté was upcycling before that was even a word, making one-offs from existing materials and garments. His career kicked off in the 1990s. The press aligned Kouyaté with both grunge and deconstructionists like Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester. Neither designation felt right.Reprinted with permission from The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields with Kate Heddings, copyright (c) 2020. Published by Lorena Jones Books, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Kouyaté’s practice is rooted in African dress traditions like reuse and customization. Then and now, Xuly-Bët designs often carry the legend “Funkin’ Fashion.” Asked how he defines funk, the designer says that it “was an emancipative step for Black populations [who] created a movement for their own leisure and pleasure, not copied on white criteria. Music made by Black people for Black people. In that I find creative energy; a freeing energy even. It’s what’s always nourished me in funk.” Kouyaté was if not the only, then one of just a few African designers working within or alongside the fashion system in the 1990s. Two decades on he’s still at it, and the industry is only just now starting to catch up with him. In addition to his other innovations, Kouyaté pioneered athleisure through his collaboration with Puma for spring 1995. The designer, who received Puma’s faxed invitation to collaborate in the middle of an interview, told the reporter that the joint venture “wouldn’t be workout gear, more like funky clothes inspired by sportswear.” Funny how the look he envisioned in 1994 is also the look of 2020. “The show took place at Le Palace in September 1994, followed by an after-show at Le Bataclan with Cathy and David Guetta as DJs! We indeed did a live [performance in the show space], but right after the show. Jenny Blue played, and I had this band, This Is Not a Machine Gun, in which I was the bass player, so I jammed after the show! I had gotten really interested in the idea of recycling sports fabrics. These are modern fabrics and I had a passion for these synthetics materials, the fact that they were not biodegradable and that you could reinvent them instead of letting them rot. I had a real interest in these sports brands which are Mastodons in terms of volume; sport being really popular, they had a large access to the public. [The idea of this kind of collaboration] was utterly new. I had more of a feminine approach than these brands; women were left apart from that movement touching sportswear clothing. Truth be told, there wasn’t even any activewear back then. The wardrobe was so masculine. This collection allowed an opening onto the women’s wardrobe by making it more “active.” I thought there was a part to be taken. I started by recintrer [reworking] these sport jackets by giving them a more feminine dynamic. The main idea was to create a collection that would talk to girls since it didn’t exist. Which is why with Jacintha’s look, for example (Look 33), we derived a dress into a jumpsuit! We also worked a lot on soccer tops that we often turned into blouses or jackets (Look 25). [I’ve always loved stretch because of] le confort! This is where my passion for these materials comes from, a comfort impossible to find in natural materials, a performance [material] where you can move. It’s a form of emancipation, to free yourself from clothing that no longer has that plush weight. We collaborated with FFF, which stands for “Fédération Française de Fonck” on the collection’s prints [including the baby’s head (Look 9)]. It was the band of the moment, led by Yarol Poupaud. The baby was their symbol [and was] on FFF’s album cover. We used to do a lot of collabs with artists I liked. Sibyl Buck’s skirt (Look 16) gives all the definitions from the French dictionary of chien. The dog is the symbol of Aurèle LostDog [aka] Aurèle Ricard, an artist with whom we created two pieces. There is the yellow skirt (39), a T-shirt turned into a skirt. On the white crop top that goes with the yellow skirt you read “N’Doumbelane.” That comes from Western African stories; N’Doumbelane was the city of animals, a freeing space. 100 Dakar [the print on Rachel Williams’s skirt (Look 18)] were Senegalese graphic artists, we did quite a few collaborations with them. The accessories in this show are quite funny; very symbolic, all of them. My American friends who had this brand Ballistic did most of them. There was also a girl with whom I got along really well, whose brand was DS; she made those rosaries with the pearls. [How has fashion changed since 1995?] It took the place of the big Mastodons of sportswear and fast-fashion. It became so much more popular with the influence of brands such as Off-White and Balenciaga who have brought the fashion out of the private salons of the haute couture…but not without its avatars. There is a perversion in that omnipresent fashion system.” With so much time spent at home this year, it’s inevitable that designers are finding inspiration in their own surroundings and possessions. Raquel Allegra went through an old memory box of concert tickets, band T-shirts, souvenirs, and programs from exhibits she’d seen as a child, and one in particular stood out: a brochure from the traveling King Tut exhibition circa 1979. It sparked a desire to visit Egypt, a place she’s never been; the fact that it’s out of the question at the moment made it all the more enticing. Until international adventures are safe again, Allegra can at least dress the part; her pre-fall 2021 collection was packaged as a “staycation to Egypt.” Her signature drapey, layer-able silhouettes don’t change dramatically from season to season, so themes typically manifest in colors and patterns. A hieroglyphic print inspired by a vintage find appeared on jumpsuits, joggers, and T-shirt dresses, and she made “tourist tees” with the pyramids and King Tut’s headdress on the chest. A cheetah print alluded to the pharaoh’s famous pets, but wouldn’t register as “Egypt-inspired” at first glance. This past year sent many people looking for new wines, and they may have been bemused to discover that celebrities are taking over the industry. Cameron Diaz has Avaline, Mary J. Blige has Sun Goddess, and Sarah Jessica Parker her award-winning partnership with Invivo. It comes as no surprise that the latter’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is considered one of the top 100 wines this year, according to Wine Spectator. “I’ve loved learning about the business and everything I can about wine,” says Parker. In-person wine tasting and blending would’ve created the perfect follow-up to the award-winning 2019 vintage, but amid the pandemic Parker and the wine producers in New Zealand had to adapt, quickly. The solution: an at-home wine blending kit and virtual tasting sessions. “We’ve now done two virtual blending sessions. We did our second Sauvignon Blanc in April and we just did our second Rose from Provence. it’s really fun. It’s pure science, trying to reach the perfect blend based on the accuracy of each pour,” Parker explains. Of course, with the actor in New York and her partners in New Zealand, the time difference presented an added challenge. “We normally start in the middle of the day, which feels very peculiar to be drinking that much in the middle of day—or in some cases, it’s been really welcome.” As Parker prepares for her holiday at home with a honey-baked ham and a roast (“all those things we typically make, just fewer and less”), her wines will be helping others get a meal to eat. Through a partnership with FEED Projects, Invivo x SJP has committed to donating a varying percentage per each individual purchase in order to reach their goal of 330,000 meals for those who are food insecure. When it comes to her downsized family dinner—she has 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re spread out across places and time zones, meaning it will be a holiday of Facetimes—Parker is finally bringing out a set of dishes she’s been collecting over the years, figuring it’s high time she fully appreciated their beauty and utility. “They’re all mismatched hotel plates,” she explains. “For years I was like, ‘Oh, we can’t use these,’ but now I’m like: Use them. Put them in the dishwasher. Enjoy them.” She’ll be pairing the dishes with jelly jars and bistro cups for a nonchalant gathering, which is an approach she hopes her wine inspires, rather than the intimidation that some bottles evoke. “There aren’t any rules. The whole point is to just enjoy it.” It’s advice we could all use, heading into a season of festivities that won’t look like any other. In mid-September of this year, epidemiologists were surprised to find a new coronavirus variant (or strain) that was markedly different from all the others. This strain was observed in Kent and the Greater London area of the U.K. This strain, named B.1.1.7, continued to appear throughout the U.K. and a few other countries. By December, British health officials were concerned by how quickly it had spread, and a series of stringent lockdown and travel bans were put into effect. Here, everything you need to know about the new Coronavirus strain. All viruses can mutate. The molecules that code the genetic sequence (DNA or RNA), like any physical thing, can change over time. Viral mutations can result in: (1) No change to the virus shape or its behavior; (2) A change to the virus shape, but no change to virus behavior; and (3) A change to both the virus shape and how it behaves. Any behavioral change might be neutral (no difference in how the virus affects us), positive (the virus is potentially less harmful), or negative (the virus is potentially more harmful). This new variant is worrisome for being harmful because a mutation in its behavior may cause it to be spread more easily. Coronaviruses mutate more slowly than other viruses, such as influenza, but how quickly it mutates can be accelerated in certain conditions (such as within patients with immunodeficiencies or with certain treatments). Epidemiologists have been monitoring the multiple variants that are circulating globally. This strain stands out for three reasons. First, it is an outlier—it is much different from the other variants, with a much higher number of mutations. Second, this variant, B.1.1.7, has shown up and spread very quickly, faster than other variants. It was first detected September 20, but by mid-November officials reported that it was 26% of all the cases in the U.K.; by the first week of December, it was 60% of all the cases in London. Third, when we look more closely at the details of the mutations, they seem to encode changes in the virus that could indeed (theoretically) help the virus spread more efficiently. It is difficult to be sure whether this variant actually spreads faster. There may be confounding factors—perhaps instead of spreading more quickly, this strain was just coincidentally in more densely populated areas or moving with holiday travel patterns. Throughout this year we have seen that early data can be messy or misleading, and there is still more to figure out. There is no evidence that it can make people sicker than the other strains, but it’s difficult to say with certainty at this time. If it did make people sicker, we would expect to see people infected with this new strain to be hospitalized and/or die at a higher rate than those infected with other strains. It is too early, however, to tell whether any difference exists. There is anecdotal evidence in South Africa that younger, healthier people may be getting sicker from the strain there, but it’s possible that this difference is due to other factors (e.g., location, more exposure, etc.). This variant was first detected in the U.K., but cases have now also been reported in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. It is likely that the strain is already in other countries, including the U.S., but the U.K. detected it sooner because it was monitoring viral spread more closely. Other mutations may also occur. A strain that emerged in South Africa shares one of the mutations with B.1.1.7 that affects the shape of the virus—this South African virus also seems to have spread faster than expected. The mutations in B.1.1.7 influence the shape of one of the targets of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—the spike protein—raising the question about whether the vaccines will protect us against the new strain. But the vaccine stimulates multiple “layers” of immunity. It is difficult for a strain to be able to overcome all those layers so quickly. As of now, there is a high probability that the vaccines will still be effective. But over time, on maybe the scale of years, we may need to get boosters or revaccinated, as we do with the seasonal flu virus. One advantage of the new technology that these vaccines are based on is that it is easier to adapt the vaccine to new targets than the influenza vaccine. Currently, officials are trying to work out travel bans and policies in response to this new strain. It is likely we will need to set up better surveillance, similar to the system in the U.K., to anticipate more mutations. Dr. Fauci, head of the infectious disease division in the National Institutes of Health, has advised taking this variant seriously, but not to overreact. Ultimately, the fundamental response to a highly contagious virus is to limit the opportunities for transmission—such as distancing and masking. Pandemic fatigue is real, especially during the winter holidays at the end of a difficult year. Distancing and supporting each other other as we ramp up the vaccinations, this is how we can get through this together. Plunging into the ocean off of the coast of Maine in December, you don’t feel wetness, only the stunning electricity of liquid burning cold. At dawn the sea is a slick of pink in the small cove near our house in Portland. I strip down to my swimsuit quickly in the 24-degree semi-dark, pulling on neoprene booties, a fur hat and mittens, leaving all my shed layers neatly on a blanket, so that once I’m back on land, I can dry off and get covered as soon as possible. And the clock is ticking. Walking into the sea, the cold raps my bones like someone cracking an old radiator with the side of a wrench. Water at 45 degrees is too cold somehow to be shocking—too cold to create a reaction, except one of extreme focus. Cold fire ignites the soft hollow behind the knees. It slides up the thighs, numbing as it climbs, until the dark water rings the pubic bone with the ecstatic intensity of a mountain bell. I drop lower, submerging my shoulders with a nonchalance that surprises me daily, holding just out of reach of the small rippling waves. One sharp exhale. Another. A third. I feel the blood rushing away from my brain towards my core. The seconds slide by on my stopwatch. One last sharp exhale. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an eerie calm settles in, swelling and filling each of my cells. My muscles unclench and I take in the day’s first sun, just hitting the Eastern horizon now as pins and needles spread across my skin. 1 minute and 45 seconds go to 2 minutes. Then a scramble to the shore where, skin numbed to the towel, I focus on getting dressed before my clumsy fingers stop working. As cold therapy guru-turned-Goop celebrity Wim Hof has long proselytized, the benefits of submitting the body to extreme cold are many—from boosted immunity to lessening anxiety. A variety of scientific research backs him up: participants in cold immersion studies have reported better health, heightened alertness and a brighter mood after submitting to routine frigid water exposure. These are the promises that first pulled me into the ocean last spring after the COVID shutdown, but before the snow had gone. Then, in the early summer, I went because I was happy to see Kerry, the one other friend who was crazy and curious enough to join me. I do tend towards the extreme, whether it’s committing to Taryn Toomey’s The Class remotely 6 days a week, or, in days gone by, spending over a month in silent meditation at an Indian ashram. But I hate the cold. I’m always the one who needs a second sweater, a thicker pair of socks. So, I could lie and say that the promise of good health is what brings me into the Atlantic in December, but that’s not it. Lately, for every person who tells me I’m crazy to dip in the winter sea, there’s another who admits to being just as hooked. “Cake never tastes better than after going into the winter ocean,” says Molly Dwyer Blake, a friend and Maine-based artist who inspired my first dips with her own. “I love to go nude,” says Kirsten Rickert, another dear friend up the coast who favors an especially icy stream, documenting her adventures as @magnesium_blue to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers. “The cold ocean makes me feel alive,” Rickert adds. The Pacific also has its own pack of mermaids, and then there’s Sweden’s ice queen @jonnajinton, who brings a sensual Viking vibe to her dramatic plunges (she uses an ice saw to cut her own swimming holes). It’s all a testament to the surge in popularity of open water swimming, a full-body, low-impact workout that burns up to 500 calories an hour. But intense athleticism and a literal immersion in nature’s beauty are not the whole of what draws those like competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, the Olympian who first attempted to swim the English Channel, and subject of an upcoming Disney biopic, into the icy deep. While it’s easy to focus on the cold, it’s what happens afterwards—the surge of endorphins—that’s the real secret. “It’s like all the sex and all the drugs you’ve ever had, but all at once,” a DJ friend tells me. The euphoria is real. By activating the sympathetic nervous system, cold immersion can considerably increase levels of endorphins in the bloodstream and in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a dip into frigid water can also send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, quite literally shocking you into a sense of exhilaration. Cold causes mitochondrial biogenesis” in the body sparking the creation of energy-generating mitochondria, explains Dr. Joel M. Evans, the director of The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, Connecticut. “This leads to energy, mental clarity, improved mood, and a feeling of vitality,” continues Evans, who recommends taking cold showers to all of his patients who suffer chronic fatigue, neurological issues or depression. “The take-away is: just 30 seconds of cold water at the end of a shower or 1 minute after exercise can improve mitochondrial health and function.” By the time I’m in the car, hot water bottle shoved up my sweater, I’m flooded with a sense of optimized mitochondrial function—but also a sense of rightness, and of happiness with the world that spills over into the rest of my morning as I help the kids get ready for school, and on through the day. Everything sparkles. In uncertain times, walking into the cold ocean has offered me a micro-dose of cool control, an intriguing glimpse at our innate superhuman physiology, while serving as a breathtaking act of surrender. But what I get out of bed for is the crazy, beautiful rush of pure survival. “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it. Overtown, Miami was a thriving Black community in the early-to-mid twentieth century that—in a sadly all-too-familiar tale of white entitlement, privilege and disregard—would be fragmented by the city’s highway extensions of I-95 and I-395 in the 1960s. Thousands were forced to leave, relocating to Liberty City, Allapattah, Brownsville, and more. Venues (which had at times hosted the likes of Lena Horne and Cab Calloway) shut down, local enterprises changed addresses. Some of the oldest churches in Miami saw their congregations dwindle. Overtown, as a result, incurred heavy damage both economically and in spirit; poverty levels rose, crime spiked, and a once vibrant ribbon of Miami’s social fabric withered under its new concrete shadows. Lately, though, the shadows are thinning. Historically Black Miami neighborhoods have experienced a significant rise in national awareness over the past few years. One example: the conversations around Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Best Picture-winning Moonlight (2016), which portrayed a young gay man growing up in Liberty City (Jenkins and McCraney are both Miamians). Another: shout-outs in the ultra-catchy lyricism of the ascendant female rap duo City Girls, with members Jatavia “JT” Johnson hailing from Liberty City and Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee growing up in Opa-Locka. Overtown, meanwhile, has seen an uptick in commercial and community interest and investment. Red Rooster, the well-known Harlem restaurant from the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, just opened its southern branch on Overtown’s Northwest 2nd Avenue. Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning, who spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, co-founded the Overtown Youth Center in 2003 with the aim of helping the area’s children and families through education. The Center does valuable, important work, especially with the added hardships incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also The Copper Door B&B—with a new restaurant named Rosie’s—situated in a 1940s-era building on Overtown’s south edge. Its owners, partners with culinary backgrounds named Jamila Ross and Akino West, officially opened the lodging in July, 2018; Rosie’s was formally introduced this past summer, as a solution to pandemic-related indoor dining restrictions and a way to keep income flowing. Both Ross and West found that, while they had an initial vision for the site, it soon needed adjusting and has been a work-in-progress ever since. The most important factor: to keep a mid-century Overtown soul while helping to define what the area will be in the 2020s—and beyond. The structure, as it happens, was originally built as a hotel. Its original owner was a controversial, law-skirting figure named Jimmy Demetree who named it after himself. A terrazzo inlay bearing his moniker still rests at the B&B’s entrance. Demetree, who was of Syrian descent, ended up leaving the hotel to a local bus driver named Carl “Moon” Mullins. Mullins would build up a business portfolio that included the hotel, a grocery store, a liquor store, a lounge and more. He passed away in 2014, though his family members are still in Miami. Ross and West have taken this legacy and preserved much of it, especially in the bones of the building (with the help of the Coral Gables-based firm Stilo Design). Original crown molding caps the high, airy lobby in a garland of Deco angles; a desk, found in a room after the building’s vacant period, was refinished and now serves as a drink cart (which, until COVID-19 subsides, is now solely decorative). Moon’s original signage still hangs on the building’s cladding. Ross and West’s modern design touches include specially drawn wallpapers (each of the B&B’s 22 rooms is decorated differently), rotating gallery installations by local artists, flat-screen TVs, and a custom upholstery fabric featuring a print from an old postcard. Another cool fact: every bathroom has a reclaimed, baguette-shaped mirror. These were originally installed at Miami Beach’s now gone Raleigh Hotel. The Copper Door B&B is the kind of place where you immediately feel a sense of the then-and-now. Here, the past and present are intertwined so tightly that they retain a reverent gravity; you can sense the ghosts, you can see the stories. “We actually stayed here for two years,” says West, noting that he and Ross wanted to make sure they were always on hand should a guest need anything—from a maintenance fix to a recommendation for a local seafood eatery. Though they live off-site now, they’re still at the property daily. “I think it took the neighborhood a minute to welcome us, but now we feel so comfortable. And, we’re starting to see a rise. It’s happening quickly.” The clientele at The Copper Door B&B ranges from those looking to learn more about Overtown’s culture to those, pre-pandemic, who were readying to set sail on cruises (the Port of Miami is nearby). Rosie’s has attracted a wide range of Miami diners for its weekend brunches, with Southern cooking including a well-reviewed fish and grits. Ross and West constructed an outdoor overhang with ceiling fans as a solution to health concerns and protocols around COVID-19. They also bought an outdoor kitchen. It worked; the restaurant is a hit. Furthermore, their commitment has proven itself in other ways; The Copper Door B&B just won a $10,000 grant from the Beygood Foundation, a collaborative effort between Beyoncé and the NAACP that supports Black-owned businesses affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, the very essence of The Copper Door B&B—in terms of its context, its contribution to Overtown’s evolution, and its deep homage to the past—rests in the name itself.  “It’s interesting. When we first were working on the little details, I noticed flashes of copper that we’d included in our communal breakfast area, or on the front desk,” says Ross. “I started thinking it over. Copper has this antique sort of quality, even if it’s new, and it gets a patina over time. It tells a narrative. Plus, it’s functional. And, I think, it can be a little bit luxurious.” And the “Door” part of the name? Ross smiles. “Everyone is always welcome.” Nancy Meyers Week has officially concluded, but in another, truer sense, it persists; after all, what is winter without a viewing of 2006 Meyers classic The Holiday? (For all the details on why and how Meyers and one of her daughters recently entered the public discourse, see here.)It’s been 14 years since The Holiday hit theaters, which means the time is nigh for a rewatch. Below, find a list of all the thoughts that entered my head upon a cozy at-home screening of the Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet rom-com. The recorded version of this film on my DVR comes in at a whopping three hours with commercials, which…can you imagine if The Holiday were three hours long? I would like to live in that world.Introduction time! Cameron Diaz is a hot, mean commercial director in L.A. with a boyfriend who sucks, and Kate Winslet is a sweet, sad journalist in London with an ex-boyfriend who sucks. Got it? Good. Seeing Kate Winslet at her work holiday party is supposed to make us feel really bad for her (because her sucky ex is there), but unfortunately, all I can think of is how badly I want to have fourteen drinks in the Condé Nast cafeteria and repair to Koreatown for karaoke.“I didn’t realize how pathetic you are,” Kate Winslet’s colleague tells her, to which she responds, “Really? Oh, God. I’m so aware of it.” I love this woman.Kate Winslet’s ex looks exactly like the college boyfriend of one of my best friends, who also sucked, so I hate him even more. Oh God, it’s actually extremely sad when we learn publicly at the party that Kate Winslet’s ex is engaged (to another one of their colleagues!). Burn his apartment down, “haha.”Back in L.A., Cameron Diaz kicks her sucky boyfriend out for cheating on her, but not before he accuses her of “working too much.” A classic Meyers-protagonist problem! She yells at him on her fancy Brentwood lawn, and I don’t really retain much of what’s going on because I’m trying to figure out how much that house would cost in 2020. What she does do, though, is punch her boyfriend, which I cannot condone. Okay, the best part of this movie is seeing the fake trailer Cameron Diaz is working on for an action movie starring Lindsay Lohan and James Franco. Also: Her sardonic work friends are John Krasinski and a very pregnant Kathryn Hahn. (Marry me, Kathryn!)Cameron Diaz mentions that single women over 35 are “more likely to be killed by terrorists than get married,” which a) show me the data, and b) please stop talking. She freaks out about her declining marriageability and gives herself a Christmas vacation, which…is federally mandated time off, but okay! Now comes a truly bizarre, proto-Airbnb scene where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet exchange houses online. It is my fervent belief that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who want to stay at Cameron Diaz’s Brentwood palace and people who want to stay at Kate Winslet’s cozy Cotswolds cottage. (I am the latter.)Cameron Diaz is literally crying and screaming at her computer as she looks up vacation sites. Women be shopping, et cetera. I have some concerns about the efficacy and security of doing a random home exchange with no proof of identity, but that’s Grinch talk, and I will try to suppress it. (Also, I go on app dates with strangers, or did pre-pandemic, so who am I to judge?)Kate Winslet literally sobs as she explains to Cameron Diaz that she is single. I hate it, but I get it.“Are there any men in your town?” Cameron Diaz asks, and she is thrilled when the answer is no. Dramatic irony, methinks! On the plane, Kate Winslet smiles at a hot guy, only to learn that he has a girlfriend. Why are men, like, obsessed with having girlfriends? Her ex reaches out, and she sends him a super-emo text about how she needs to fall out of love with him. Oy vey. If I may offer some advice from lived experience: Instead of telling avoidant people you need to fall out of love with them, just…do it. Kate Winslet is thrilled to be in L.A., while Cameron Diaz is pissed to be in the sticks. (Clearly, years of L.A. living have warped the part of her brain that appreciates coziness. Also, she wore heels on the plane. Boooooo!)“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz is all wrapped up in scarves in the cottage, watching TV and drinking wine, which apparently…is bad? And not supposed to be aspirational? I have this same beef with the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary when she gets drunk and sings in her penguin pajamas; am I to understand this isn’t the ideal way to spend an evening? Time to introduce Jack Black as a leading man! He stops by the Brentwood house because he works with Cameron Diaz’s ex, and he and Kate Winslet hit it off. He mansplains Ennio Morricone, but to be honest, it’s kind of cute.God, Kate Winslet’s ex keeps contacting her! Loser! She ignores it this time, which is correct and good.Kate Winslet’s drunk, hot brother Jude Law shows up at the cottage, and he and Cameron Diaz also hit it off. He’s sort of doing a store-brand Hugh Grant thing that I really cannot abide. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law totally have sex, and then it’s awkward in the morning.Kate Winslet’s ex asks her to help him with work because he is, again, a huge loser. She says yes because being a person is hard.There’s a very nice subplot with a sweet, old neighbor man that Kate Winslet befriends, but to be honest, I find it boring, so we’re not going to go into it. Just know it’s happening.Montage time! Cam and Jude are 100% falling in love. Okay, this is a scene I like: Kate Winslet throws a Hanukkah party for all her fun, new Jewish Angeleno pals, and just seeing them live it up is making me crave matzoh ball soup from Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. Jack Black explains he’s dating a beautiful actress, but we already know she’s mean and that he’s destined for Kate Winslet, so…Hoo boy, we learn that Jude Law has kids! And he utters the immortal line, “I am Daddy.” If I were Jude Law, I would simply not introduce my daughters to the visiting woman I had slept with a handful of times, but that’s his prerogative, I suppose! It goes well, anyway, and Cameron Diaz learns about the value of seasonal coziness.Oh no, Jude Law is a widower!Kate Winslet’s old gentleman friend encourages her to pursue Jack Black, anshe, in turn, tries to convince him to publicly accept a TV writing award. Can you tell this movie was written by Hollywood types? Kate Winslet yells at her brother Jude Law for sleeping with Cameron Diaz and goes on a date-ish thing with Jack Black (where they drink Coffee Bean! Ugh, L.A., I miss you). He learns his mean, hot girlfriend is cheating, and he and Kate Winslet bond over heartbreak.Okay, we’re two hours in, and somehow this movie is still playing. I’ve started angrily texting my friends about the runtime: Kate Winslet’s ex shows up in L.A. to re-woo her (uuuuuughhhhh), but she denies him and gets all dressed up to see Old Man Friend accept his award. It’s actually very sweet, even though I still don’t care about this plotline.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Cameron Diaz and Jude Law dither a bit, then decide to stay together at least for New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet and Jack Black agree he’ll go visit her in England. The last shot of the film is of the whole gang, plus Jude Law’s kids, partying in the cottage on New Year’s, and finally…blessedly…this movie is over. I love it, but come on, Nancy, this narrative arc could have been accomplished in a tight 90 minutes. Happy holidays, one and all! Is there a more exciting prospect than kissing this year goodbye? 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 hit, and everyone in the world is ready to bid it adieu. Of course, the pandemic is still very much here, meaning that a big, splashy, blowout bash to end the year is very much out of the question. But fear not! Your at-home festivities need not be a bore. Feeling determined to have a good time this New Year’s Eve and plan something fun, safe, and wildly festive, Vogue reached out to five fashion insiders to find out what their plans are for ringing it in. Designer Batsheva Hay, stylist Jason Bolden, and more of the fashion flock shared their advice for celebrating New Year’s Eve in style this year. Their itineraries are worth perusing, whether they plan to cozy up to the fire with some marshmallows and hot toddies, or feast on some pasta and a good book. To be sure, these suggestions are all about ushering in 2021 with some self-love and much-needed R&R. “We will be at what we call our ‘quarantine lake house’ (the house we lived in from March to June while NYC was locked down) upstate. There is a nice big fireplace out there. My kids like dancing around a big, open house. We like to hike in the local nature preserves. If there is any ice skating open nearby, I’m sure my kids would love that too. I’ve also been wearing velvet as much as possible since the weather got colder, so I will definitely be in one of my velvet smock dresses with rhinestone buttons, which feels like the right mix of comfortable and festive. We will also roast marshmallows for the kids, and my husband and I will have hot toddies. Lots of crackers and nice cheese usually makes me feel celebratory too.” “I will be with a few close friends and family on an island relaxing this New Year’s Eve! I plan on wearing a custom Prada pajama look that I’ve been dying to wear since the last Met Gala. I also plan on eating all the pasta I can get my hands on, and drinking loads of water. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, I’ll get some running in too, and reading more fashion memoirs. I’m leaving the night-of planning to my husband.” “Normally, I would be hosting a big party like I do almost every New Year’s, but this one will be spent with my good friend Alicia Silverstone, whom I haven’t seen in so long. We will be dreaming of being on a beach having fun in the sun. Whatever we decide to actually do in the end, I plan to wear my favorite Saint Laurent tuxedo shirt, black jeans, and these cool new Prada boots I bought myself for a birthday present in November. [We’ll be having] anything that involves yummy tequila and dancing all night to ’90s hits!” New Year’s Tradition: “For some reason, the last few years I have always hosted a masquerade-type party, and everyone takes off their cool mask to kiss at midnight—and well, we will all be wearing masks again this year. But I don’t think the kiss at midnight will happen, sadly. So it’s time for a new COVID-friendly tradition!” “My husband, son, and I will be spending New Year’s Eve at home here in Milan. It will be low-key and cozy. I would love to wear a Petar Petrov devoré-velvet maxidress. It’s so velvety and soft, perfect for festive dressing at home. At this moment, I am dreaming of ordering a decadent meal from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We will drink our favorite Franciacorta. We’ll watch movies until just before midnight and turn on the news to ring in the new year. Don’t tell anyone, but my husband loves fireworks and crackers. He mentioned getting some. However, I have no idea where he would launch them in Milan!” New Year’s Tradition: “We normally celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Margit and Paolo’s home in Switzerland. Margit is a goddess in the kitchen and each couple invited brings a side, dessert, or alcohol. It’s a family affair and all of our children are present. My husband treats them to fireworks and crackers at midnight. That part gets pretty wild.” “This year, we are going to spend New Year’s in our cabin upstate! We just bought it and it will be a fun way to start a new chapter and a new year. I will wear a Refine slip dress and add some fun jewelry. I love a slip dress because it can have sort of a nightgown vibe, so it makes sense for an at-home party. I’ll be barefoot too, of course. I am also a terrible cook, but I am really good at assembling a cheese or crudité plate, maybe because it’s like styling?! I can work with what is already made, and make it look nice, so I will probably just eat a ton of snacks and drink wine. Always wine for me! I love to prep as well, so I am sure all day I will be making the house look nice (for no one) and then be tired by midnight.” New Year’s Tradition: “My tradition is that I never want to go out and always try to convince everyone to just stay in with me. So this situation sort of works out perfectly for me. Now, everyone will have to be home, just how I like it!”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” On a Saturday night not long ago, I found myself scouring my closet for something to wear to a friend’s small, outdoor birthday gathering. It had been months since I’d gone out in anything other than slippers, sneakers, or sandals and, in a decidedly ambitious move, I stepped into a pair of black boots with heels. My body’s reaction was swift and decisive. Why was I moving so slowly? Had my strides always been this short? Pre-pandemic, I’d considered those same boots my everyday shoes, comfortable enough to wear from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again. But now, they felt ridiculously formal, like I was teetering around in the strappy heels I’d stolen from my older sister’s closet in middle school. After several minutes spent wobbling around my apartment, I had no choice but to change. Like so many of the cultural shifts brought on by the pandemic, It’s hard to anticipate the extent to which this past year of cozy, at-home dressing will influence workwear once we return to physical office spaces. While some women are undoubtedly eager to start getting dressed up again in the traditional sense, others, like myself, may never make a full return to pre-pandemic norms, opting instead for a simpler, pared-down aesthetic. But pared-down has its limits, and even I can admit that some quarantine impulse buys are less suitable for the office than others. While my tie-dye sweatsuit will likely stay at home, these nine versatile pieces have officially transcended the loungewear category, proving themselves more than worthy for a day in the office. For whatever reason, knit separates weren’t exactly on my pre-pandemic radar. But when a friend recommended these insanely comfortable Leset pants, I went all in on the matching set. The medium weight material is best suited for summer or fall, seasons in which many of us may still be navigating the transition from leggings and sweats to zippers and buttons. As a connoisseur of black turtlenecks, trust me when I say this Lunya mock neck should absolutely be in your arsenal of cold weather staples. The thick material is extra flattering, and hidden thumb holes keep things cozy.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Aritzia’s Ganna shirt jacket (shacket?) is a little bit like the jeans from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: flattering on body types so different from one another that magic must somehow be at play. It’s structured enough to hold its shape out in the world, but cozy enough to wear around the house. I’m always surprised by how many compliments it garners—on Zoom and out in the real world. There’s been much discussion about the future of bras—after months spent without them, will anyone bother to wear one post-pandemic? While I personally am not ready to eschew them entirely, I am absolutely in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Enter: this wireless bralette and brief from Skims. It’s become abundantly clear to me that any serious transition back to heels will take some time (see above). And to be honest, I anticipate wearing them much less frequently. These super simple Everlane sneakers are comfortable, they look good with literally everything, and they’re machine washable.Sweater sets are yet another category of clothing to which I’d given little thought pre-quar and frankly, I regret not discovering them sooner. This unbelievably soft Reformation set is 100% reentering society with me. When Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019 after the Amazon founder disclosed he was having an affair with former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez, Scott walked away the biggest settlement ever awarded in a marital split: $38 billion in Amazon stock. The end of the 25-year marriage immediately made Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman. “What would she do with all that money?” people wondered. Now we know. Quietly, stealthily, and without any publicity (well, until last week, when the news broke), MacKenzie has completely upended the philanthropic world with some of the biggest charitable gifts ever given by a single person.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” As the New York Times wrote, “They came like gifts from a Secret Santa, $20 million here, $40 million there, all to higher education, but not to the elite universities that usually hog all the attention. These donations went to colleges and universities that many people have never heard of, and that tended to serve regional, minority, and lower-income students.” “I was stunned,” Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college in Prairie View, Texas, told the Times after she learned that Scott was giving it $50 million, the biggest gift the university had ever received. She told the paper she thought she had misheard, and the caller had to repeat the number: “five-zero.” In a Medium post this month, Scott, 50, wrote that the pandemic had accelerated her charitable giving for 2020 and that she and a group of advisers started meeting in July to identify schools and other financially strapped organizations to which they could quickly offer help. One contributing factor: The pandemic has actually boosted the stock market and the share prices of companies like Amazon that have benefited from it. “This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote, “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.” Scott wrote that she has donated $4.1 billion in the past six months, doing so to 384 recipients that she and her advisers had identified as serving “communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.” It’s been estimated that, in total, Scott gave away $6 billion in 2020, which experts say might be the most ever given directly to charities in a single year by a living donor. It’s quite a contrast to her ex-husband, the 56-year-old Bezos, who in the past few years has bought mansions in Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, as well as a multi-apartment complex on Manhattan’s Central Park South and a 300,000-acre property in Texas; partied in St-Tropez and St.  Barts with Sanchez; showed off his newly buff body in $260 Vilebrequin swim shorts that quickly became an Internet sensation; and has methodically squeezed every last dollar out of his Amazon employees while fighting their efforts to unionize. And as Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote at CommonDreams, Scott—a relative newcomer on the billionaire-giving scene—has quickly made herself the role model for others to follow. “She’s now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven’t figured out comparable ways to boldly share,” he wrote. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott met in 1992, when they were both at the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw, working out of adjoining offices, and then married a year later. In 1994, they quit their jobs and moved to Seattle to start Amazon (then conceived as an online bookseller) from the garage of their new home. “I picked books as the first, best product to sell online after making a list of, like, 20 different products,” Bezos told an interviewer in 1997. On the way to Washington, MacKenzie drove while Jeff worked on their business plan, tapping it out on his laptop. According to a 1999 Wired interview, MacKenzie negotiated Amazon’s first freight contracts, doing so while working out of a Starbucks café in a local Barnes & Noble. Scott, writing as MacKenzie Bezos, is the author of two well-regarded novels: The Testing of Luther Albright, which was named a Los Angeles Times “book of the year” in 2005, and Traps, published eight years later, which Kirkus Reviews called a “cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned” tale. In 2013, Scott told Vogue that it had taken 10 years and “a lot of tears” to finish her first novel. “Granted, she was doing other things during that time,” added her interviewer Rebecca Johnson, “moving cross-country, giving birth to four children (three boys and a girl, ranging in age from seven to twelve), helping her husband start a fledgling business called Amazon.com.” Scott, who grew up in San Francisco—the daughter of a financial planner and a stay-at-home mother and local philanthropist—attended Hotchkiss and then Princeton, a school she later said she chose partly for the chance to study fiction under the writer Toni Morrison, who once called Scott “one of the best students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing classes . . . really one of the best.” It was Morrison who connected Scott with Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, at the beginning of her writing career. They didn’t quite call it a “conscious uncoupling,” but Bezos and Scott pulled off their divorce without public acrimony: a considerable feat given its frenzied tabloid coverage. (In February of 2019, Bezos accused the National Enquirer of trying to extort him by threatening to publish compromising photos that Bezos had texted to Sanchez.) In a tweet, Jeff said he and MacKenzie had decided to “continue our shared lives as friends”: Just months after her divorce, Scott signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away at least half of one’s money. Led by Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge has been described as “today’s Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller,” and its purpose is to remake global philanthropy by encouraging earlier, bigger, and more public giving, particularly from the new generation of tech billionaires. (Notably, the couple did not sign the pledge while married, and Bezos himself has not done so since the divorce, though he and MacKenzie did make some notable donations while they were together.) “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share,” Scott said in a letter announcing her commitment. “My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.” Scott made gifts to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as community and technical colleges and schools serving Native Americans, women, urban, and rural students. Among the groups she singled out in her Medium post and urged others to donate to were the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Chicago Community Loan Fund, Feeding America, the Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, and HBCUs ranging from Dillard University to Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. According to Forbes, Scott is now the third-richest woman in the world, just behind L’Oreal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Walmart heir Alice Walton. The magazine estimates her current net worth at $55.1 billion (after her most recent donations), which means Scott has a lot more charitable giving in her future if she sticks to her pledge to give at least half her fortune away. And it seems like she will: As Scott wrote on Medium in July, she is determined “to give the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it, to do it thoughtfully, to get started soon, and to keep at it until the safe is empty.” She added: “This work is ongoing and will last for years.” The holidays are here! With time running out on gift shopping, 26 Vogue editors are here to help ease the process by sharing what’s on their own holiday wish lists. If you, like many of our editors, are looking to give your homes a much-needed face-lift as we all hunker down this winter, consider a sculptural vase by Anissa Kermiche to put on your tabletop. Bud vases are on living writer Elise Taylor’s list, or try a beautiful new serving platter by John Derian, a favorite of sustainability editor Tonne Goodman. Jewelry is another category on a lot of our editors’ minds, a gift that is a bit of a splurge, but an investment. Alexandra Michler, director of fashion initiatives, has her eye on an 18-karat gold and silver topaz ring by Fred Leighton that would dazzle both on Zoom and in a post-pandemic world. On the more affordable end, fashion news editor Steff Yotka is eyeing a personalized pearl and gold necklace under $200 that she hopes will remind her of the good in 2020. I think that personalized gifts make for some of the best gifts. I had my second child this summer and this photo album would be the perfect gift to memorialize the wild year that has been 2020!“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” I’m a sucker for cardigans and have had my eye on this button-bedazzled version from Tory Burch ever since I laid eyes on it (digitally, that is). I’m not asking for much this year, but a quirky and charming piece like this is special enough to make the cut!Gift cards to my favorite restaurants (Raoul’s, Omen, King…) are at the top of my list this year, as is a bottle of I Sodi’s small-batch olive oil. But I’ve also had my eye on this cozy cord set from The Row, which I’d happily live in all winter long. After a brief attempt to learn French, I finally settled on a new pandemic hobby that doesn’t involve the Duolingo owl haunting my dreams: flower arranging. Top of my Christmas list this year? Vases! I’m currently eyeing Source and Tradition’s sea-inspired bud vases for Jean Georges, House of Hackney’s Serpentis vase, and Anissa Kermiche’s Jugs Jug vase. Every year about this time I find myself moving my Nili Lotan sweaters into heavy rotation as temperatures drop. This year I would love to add this half-zip, lounge-ready edition to my rotation!I have been collecting plates and bowls from Astier de Villatte since I first started attending the Paris collections many years ago (such a fond memory right now). Little did I know that John Derian now has a wonderful collection at his enchanted store on Christopher Street, around the corner from where I live (I have my sister, Wendy, to thank for informing me!). Now I can continue my collection without the flight to Paris—so happy, as currently, but not forever, that is not on my itinerary. At the top of my list this year are a pair of Celine loafers. In my mind, a great gift is one to cherish for years to come. I also have my eye on this glitzy ring from Daphine—a festive accessory even if my holidays are spent in sweats.As I think about the holidays and more evenings spent at home, I’m focused on how to make my small NYC space feel a little more special. One element I’m looking to refresh is my dinnerware, and this Dior plate would be the perfect gift to make even the simplest meals feel more enticing. I’m also someone who can’t resist a pretty notebook, and this toile version would make any hyper-organized friend or family member pleased (including myself! Hint hint).“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Anyone’s wardrobe would be greatly improved by a Babaa sweater. It’s warm, cozy, and roomy like you would not believe. They’re made with wool from Spain, and mine is by far the highest-quality sweater in my closet. I desperately need more. I’ve also been coveting Laura Lombardi’s chains. The large lobster-claw fastening makes it feel elevated, but not trendy per se. This holiday season, I love the idea of a glamorous ring for every day. I am coveting something beautiful and over-the-top. It will look fabulous on Zoom, as well as in a cocktail setting when we reemerge into the world. The general rule at the holidays is that it’s better to give than receive. Unfortunately, that tends to fall down when it comes to these chocolates from Palomas. Selfishly, I wouldn’t part with them. Incidentally, the 1917 in the website URL means the year that the maison was founded in Lyon, France, not how many I could eat. I have been coveting this Tekla robe. I got one for my boyfriend last year and have been borrowing it, so I am hoping that’ll give a hint and I will be gifted one myself.To put it plainly, I am ring obsessed. I wear at least nine rings at all times and love finding new ways to stack simple bands while mixing in statement pieces. This massive, juicy emerald dome ring from Kinn Studio is the stuff of dreams and just the ring I’ve been looking for. It is definitely top of my wish list this holiday season! I’ve always loved to cook, but this year my ambitions of being an at-home top chef have really kicked into high gear. That’s why I am currently coveting the Cookware Set from Caraway for the holidays. The set includes everything I’d need to channel my inner Ina, and I’ve heard the ceramic-coated finish makes these pots and pans perfectly nonstick. Watch out, Padma, I’m coming for you! I’m not surprised that one of the most successful product categories from the year has been jewelry. In a totally effed-up time we all want a talisman to hold near. I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful pearl necklace from Dilara Findikoglu that is handmade in her native Turkey. Not only is it aesthetically lovely, but having something to remind me of Dilara’s sacred sisterhood would be a nice reminder that for all the bad in 2020, there are some good vibes too. I recently moved in with my fiancé and it has been an ongoing project of mine to collect decor and objects for our new home. I have been eyeing a record player we could listen to over the holidays as we celebrate at home. This one in particular caught my eye with its sleek and minimalist design. There’s something special about record players—they give you a whole new experience while taking you back in time. I’m moving in a month (eek!) and have been coveting one of these stools from Moustache! A bold stool to accent any living space.I’m already mentally preparing myself for the cold weather once I’m back in NYC. I’ve been eyeing this crewneck from No Sesso—perfect to keep me warm and cozy in my home! I always think jewelry is the best gift, particularly the kind you can wear every day and keep for decades. I always wear rings from my mom and grandparents, so I love the idea of collecting future heirlooms. Right now I’m into charms you can mix and match, like Lizzie Fortunato’s tiny gemstones for hoop earrings. My boyfriend gave me a couple that I switch between piercings, but I could use a few more to layer up! While I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take a quick road trip to the slopes for a socially distant ski season this winter, these fun goggles are at the top of my holiday list. Finding the right pair of ski goggles is an investment and a science—balancing visibility, comfort, and of course, style—and this pair seems to have it all. Plus, there’s a magnetic face mask integration, which is always a must for riding in frigid temperatures, but now doubles as the perfect feature so you can mask up and ride safely. I’m not the first Vogue editor to covet a Brent Neale ring and I surely won’t be the last. Her designs are classic with a touch of whimsy and she has a wonderfully adept use of color. I love this chunky knot ring with its rainbow of stones. I’d wear it on my pinky—something with more punch than a signet ring and a whole lot of fun. We’ve eaten so many meals at home lately that everyone could use a flatware upgrade right about now. That’s why I’ll be giving this beautiful set. When sitting down to a meal and seeing these, one can’t help but smile.I’ve been eyeing this Alterita glass heart necklace. I’m not one for necklaces, but I’m feeling flirty for 2021 and want to wear my heart on my sleeve, or rather, neck! My favorite kinds of gifts to get (and to give!) are elevated versions of everyday basics. I’ve been living in an old polo sweater and would love to trade it up for this cashmere one from Sherris. Plus, it’s slow fashion, sustainable, and supporting a small, independent, female-owned business…what more could you (or I) ask for? I’ve taken up enough weird (read: dangerous) adrenaline-rush sports and pastimes lately—skateboarding, motorcycling—that it almost seems a shame to not torment my Instagram followers with vivid 360-degree video of me chasing these wreckless unicorns. The Insta350 One X2 is more ergo than the ubiquitous GoPros and packs some amazing technology into a seemingly idiot-proof package. Here’s hoping I don’t end up on @failarmy. With my very own apartment under my belt this year, homeware has been top of mind and certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Anissa Kermiche’s Love Handles vase leads the pack for home accessories, as it is what I consider to be the vase of the season, thanks to the overload of Instagram inspiration! Hoping to liven up and bring this inspiration into my space with this coveted piece. Decks make great wall art and allow me to live out my skate dreams vicariously. I’m thinking that this reflective deck from Chocolate with its rad logo font would be a fun way to light up winter nights.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Procuring no-fail holiday gifts for everyone on your list can feel like a daunting challenge, especially in 2020. While a whimsical or expensive tchotchke may have been easy go-to items in years past, gifts rooted in utility are the ultimate mood-boosters this holiday season. Cozy clothes and accessories are well-suited for life today in what’s been a tough, daunting year. Think luxurious loungewear to don during work in your living room, a pair of super-soft shearling slippers for traipsing around the house, or even a sumptuous throw blanket to snuggle up in during the inevitable chilly winter days and nights ahead. Everyone can use a little extra comfort this year, and whether you’re celebrating the holidays with loved ones in person or via FaceTime (a reality for many this season), carefully chosen cozy gifts can let them know you’re thinking about them. Here, finish the year off on a high note with these can’t-go-wrong cozy gifts for all.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” This year, the search for the best last-minute gifts feels particularly tricky, especially since so many delivery services are spread thin right now. But if you’re a smart shopper, there’s still a way to cop a perfect present without feeling beholden to those quickly approaching shipping cutoff times. Procrastinators, I’d like to introduce you to your new best friend: the buy online, pick up in-store option, which has in fact been a useful retail strategy over the last few months during the pandemic. As it pertains to the holidays specifically, it’s not only a safe way to shop for all of us but an easier one too. Several of the most coveted labels and popular outposts are offering this convenient option for the holiday season, including Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., and Apple (hello, new noise-canceling AirPods Max). In some cases, you don’t even have to get out of your car to get your package because they’ll bring it right to you at the curbside. And don’t forget that there are indeed also a few retailers who are somehow still able to pull off two-day deliveries, like Amazon, and that there are also those who offer same-day delivery in select cities, like Net-a-Porter. Plus, digital gifts like streaming service subscriptions are always lifesavers when you’re down to the wire. Time is ticking, but you’ll be in great shape come the holiday if you grab something chic for a loved one or family member ASAP. Below, you’ll find something special for everyone on your list, from those beloved fluffy Birkenstocks to Glossier’s glow-inducing serums. Read on for 42 perfect last-minute gifts to order online, pick up in-store, and save your sanity. If Halsey wasn’t on your fashion radar before—I’ll admit she wasn’t always on mine—she should be in 2020. Her style shift started in early 2020, before COVID-19 had many staying at home in lockdown. In January, she wore an icy blue, off-the-shoulder dress from the graduate collection of Parsons student Hanyu Cui to her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and later that month, she opted for a curve-skimming dress with a kaleidoscope of trippy sherbet hues by Sies Marjan at a performance. With these, her look evolved from a general sexy-hot vibe shared by many pop stars to a more indie style. This colorful, elevated aesthetic continued into her street style. In July, she opted for Collina Strada tie-dyed sweatpants. Later in September, she arrived at the studio in a vintage, Frida Kahlo-print Jean Paul Gaultier mesh dress. In October—with her new buzz cut!—Halsey arrived at a livestreaming musical event toting a large oversized Telfar baby blue bag. I also learned that she is a Lakers fan through her variety of pieces: LeBron James’s number 23 yellow jersey, a vintage 2002 championship watch, and a hulking white puffer coat with the team name emblazoned on it. Not one to wear exclusively buzzy pieces, Halsey has mastered the high-low mix, which makes her style feel wholly personal. She often mixes her standout clothes with garb from Urban Outfitters, like a crop top or plaid lounge pants, that she pairs with Marc Jacobs x Doc Marten boots. Maybe without COVID-19, we would have seen some outré onstage looks from Halsey, further cementing her as a champion of smaller labels. But alas, it’s currently a sweatpant nation for the foreseeable future. Though she managed to make humble sweats her own, wearing a rotation of tie-dyed sets. I don’t necessarily think that Halsey is trying to become a paparazzi-stalked fashion plate, and that is refreshing. Her here-and-there fashion shouts are right in step with her metamorphosis, and have certainly piqued my interest as to what she’ll wear next. I’ve seen her go through several different hairstyles, including rocking a killer Mad Max-style buzz cut that she dyed into swirls of lime green, highlighter yellow, and icy blue. She even released a best-selling book of poetry I Would Leave Me If I Could, an emotional mash-up that touches on everything from family, relationships, and love. Sound-wise, she has some chart-topping bops that I find myself listening to even beyond a workout! You could say…I’m becoming a fan. In a day-in-age when celebrities are very much styled head-to-toe, Halsey’s approach to fashion feels all very genuine and accessible, which is something that should resonate with her fans and beyond. Let’s see what she wears in 2021. Bella Hadid stepped out today in New York City in a look that gave us deja vu. She wore a preppy mustard-yellow sweater that read “Victoria” with a white collar popping out from underneath, and continued the scholastic bent by carrying a notebook. The vibe was artfully offset with a pair of Playboy-print pants that featured cover model Debbie Ellison from 1970, from a collaboration between the magazine and the Danish brand Soulland. Sound familiar? Look familiar? That’s because Hadid actually wore the pant out back in July with an über tiny white long-sleeve crop top. It’s a welcome outfit repeat. There’s pressure for certain celebrities to wear totally new outfits all the time, whether they’re fresh-from the-runway or archival vintage. And while some of these clothes are called in by stylists and not actually owned by the celebrity, it gives the impression that people have to consume more and more in order to be on trend. Outfit repeating and finding different ways to style a beloved statement piece is a stellar way to give clothes some more love, and send a mindful message. We look forward to seeing those Playboy pants again, Bella! Red carpet followers didn’t have much to gawk at in 2020. This year, awards ceremonies went virtual and many movie premieres were cancelled, meaning A-list stars did not walk the step and repeat as often as they usually would. As a result, the year lacked the dazzling glitz and glamour that usually comes out of Hollywood—at least in the traditional sense. But the show must go on, and in lieu of a physical red carpet, stars wore their best looks at home, for any event, formal or otherwise. All dressed up with nowhere to go became the sartorial modus operandi. We weren’t totally deprived of award show-level gowns, though. Who could forget Zendaya accepting her Emmy Award from home in custom Giorgio Armani Prive? Or when Sarah Michelle Gellar tuned into the Christian Siriano fashion show from her bathtub while wearing a feathered gown? But what was more charming was seeing stars dress up for no occasion at all. Take Lizzo, who did some recording in her home studio in a tulle-overlay crop top and ripped jeans. In October, Gabrielle Union slipped into a two-tone Christopher John Rogers suit at home that was meant for the red carpet—instead, she struck a pose in it on her staircase, because why let the look go to waste? Another consistent outfit-winner this year was Kylie Jenner, who treated her backyard as a runway, slipping into Charlotte Knowles two-pieces, vintage Dior, and a graphic Marine Serre dress. During their down time, celebrities also offered us a glimpse inside their homes, and gave us a taste of what they dress like when relaxing—though, spoiler alert, many of them still dressed up for their “chill” looks. Designer Victoria Beckham, for instance, showed what her version of loungewear looks like—a chic, two-piece knitted set by her own label. Model Adult Akech also gave R&R a high-fashion spin, cozying herself into a Versace bathrobe. Hailey Bieber also repped her husband Justin’s Drew House pieces, including a cute tie-dye sweatsuit (the look of summer 2020). Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own. Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks. A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.” Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.” The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it. During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.) During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement. This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban? How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka? The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over. In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”  Our audience certainly took his message to heart. Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote. Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Prada’s fall 1996 ready-to-wear collection was presented on March 8, 1996, in Milan. The impact of Miuccia Prada’s “pretty-ugly” collection of spring 1996, with its “off” colors (avocado, brown, ochre) and geometric patterns, both seemingly inspired by 1970s appliances and dishware, lasted for more than a season. According to reports at the time, so-called bad taste or anti-fashion was on the menu everywhere six months later. Prada included. The fall 1996 Prada show reads like a coda to the one that came before it. The palette was more somber; one might say autumnal. Navy, gray, and wine were balanced by brown, mustard, and lilac. Bold abstract motifs were back in a big way too.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” There was newness, observed Vogue, in the long and slender silhouette; slim skirts hit below the knee, and there were cigarette pants in the mix. Ideologically, Prada’s fall and spring 1996 collections were in line with the tendency, noted by the magazine, of “every hip designer putting an ironic spin on classicism.” Are peacoats and cashmere sweaters fashion? Are “ugly” clothes anti-fashion? These were the kinds of questions journalists were posing, and Mrs. Prada kept them guessing. The fall show opened with a trad pantsuit, sweaters, and trousers, nothing to write home about, or…? The patterned pieces were certainly “editorial.” The mood was more sophisticated and “adult” than that of the spring show, until the finale of slip dresses. None of these had any BUtterfield 8 sizzle. Though some were rendered in a shade of lilac similar to that of the princess-line Prada dress Uma Thurman wore to the Oscars earlier in the year, the models didn’t project star power, but waif power. Though Prada revisited some of fall 1996’s distinct motifs in 2010 (much in advance of the late 2010s reissue fad, it should be noted), this collection is most memorable for its laddered knit tights and sell-out shoes: antiqued leather Mary Janes with stacked heels and floral appliques. They were either terribly pretty or pretty terrible, and as such they somehow managed in that inimitable Prada way to destabilize stereotypes and assumptions about propriety, class, gender, and beauty. There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows. I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless. Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way. I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.” Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.” The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it. The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston. Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.” It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn’t available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant. Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade. What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century. When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor. At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves. Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.” While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again. Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution. One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here? “I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one. “I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway. “When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.) Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year. The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux. Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says. The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way. The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.) While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’” That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes. To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says. That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.” Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess. “I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “Did you get that candid loving moment with my child?” Chika asks. On a recent morning in her Los Angeles home, the rising rapper’s spontaneous rendition of a Kermit the Frog song quickly turned into a private show for her dog Vision (“Rainbows are visions—like you!—but only illusions…”) The ginger-haired pup has rarely left his owner’s side during quarantine, including when Vogue stopped by to spend 24 hours with Chika at home and in the studio. Since getting signed by Warner Bros. last year, the 23-year-old has become a music star to watch thanks to her bold mix of rap, hip-hop, and poetry. She’s competing for Best New Artist at next year’s Grammys and made XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class, a showcase for emerging rappers whose past lineups included the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion. Barack Obama is even a fan, including the rapper’s song “Crown” on his 2020 summer playlist (“Excuse my language but BITCCHHHH,” she tweeted in response). After changing into a James Baldwin t-shirt gifted to her by Lena Waithe, Chika heads to the studio. Giving Vogue a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her latest single “Gold Medals,” the rapper gets candid about how success has (and hasn’t) transformed her world. “This Grammy nomination changed my thought process on who I am,” she says. “I want people to know that even if I never get any kind of praise, no prize for this, no trophy, or gold medal, I’m it.” 2020 saw a staggering loss across the world due to the global pandemic. Making a tough year even tougher: the loss of beloved public figures from every cultural corner, from sports (Kobe Bryant) to politics (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) to television (Alex Trebek). At some point over the last 12 months, someone you likely grew up watching, reading, or admiring passed away—leaving a trail of grief in their wake. With large gatherings and mass vigils banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became the way to publicly mourn and memorialize. After the death of Chadwick Boseman in August, for example, everyone from his Black Panther co-stars to former president Barack Obama posted thoughtful tributes on Twitter. Then, there’s Congressman John Lewis. An op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, which was written shortly before his death and published just after his passing, went viral, trending on nearly corner of the internet. On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were tragically killed in a helicopter crash. A massive outpouring of grief poured in from all over the country, especially in Bryant’s home town of Los Angeles, where murals popped up all over the city. The Grammys, which were held that night, included multiple tributes to the late basketball star and his daughter. A few days later, the Lakers held their own memorial during their first game after Bryant’s death. Usher sang “Amazing Grace,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth sang “See You Again.” Lebron James also gave a speech before tip off. Olivia de Havilland, one of the last surviving actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, passed away in July 2020. Her legacy will live on in movies like Gone with the Wind, To Each His Own, and Hold Back the Dawn.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis passed away on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to The New York Times urging Americans to fight against racism and to vote. His encouragement to involve oneself in “good trouble” resonated with a whole new generation of activists. In July 2020, a month before his 89th birthday, Regis Philbin died of a heart attack. With his tenure on Live! With Regis and Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Philbin holds a world record for most hours on U.S. television.Over the July 4 holiday, Naya Rivera went missing while boating with her young son on Lake Piru in California. While he was found hours later on the vessel, Rivera, unfortunately, had accidentally drowned while swimming. Her Glee cast-mates posted an onslaught of emotional tributes to social media. On August 28, Chadwick Boseman passed away due to complications from colon cancer. The shock was immense: very few knew that The Blank Panther star was terminally ill. In reality, he’d been diagnosed in 2016, and even filmed several movies while undergoing chemotherapy. On Twitter, former president Barack Obama wrote: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.” Diana Rigg passed away in her London home on September 10. The storied actor had a long career and both film and television—she was made a Dame in 1994 for her services to drama—and recently became loved by a new generation for her role on Game of Thrones. The September 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from cancer plunged a nation into mourning—and turmoil, as the ethics on whether to fill her seat on The Supreme Court raged on in the Capital. (Ginsburg’s dying wish is that she would not be replaced until the country elected a new president. It wasn’t respected.) Sean Connery, who held the iconic role of James Bond, died at age 90 on October 31. His ashes are to be spread in his home country of Scotland as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.Alex Trebek died on November 8, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The longtime Jeopardy host was 80 years old, and had hosted over 8,000 episodes of the game show. Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Ann Demeulemeester’s spring 1998 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1997 in Paris. Ann Demeulemeester, one to two female members of the Antwerp Six and a designer acclaimed for introducing deconstruction to fashion, retired in 2013, but rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about her work. The ways in which Demeulemeester built fluidity and nonchalance into clothes using ingenious cuts and poetic drapery have always moved me. Demeulemeester didn’t follow trends or use elaborate sets; instead she told stories and evoked deep emotions through materials and construction. Her process was as instinctual as it was innovative. She was her own fit model and her focus was always on “real” clothes, but ones that were nonetheless imbued with magic. The designer’s spring 1998 “Corps Humain” (Human Body) collection seems particularly resonant in this COVID-ravaged year, when each cough and every ache feels like a warning signal. We are hyper-aware of our bodies, our physicality, and our fragility. Demeulemeester, who recently started making pottery, has spent isolation with her husband Patrick Robyn in the Dutch countryside. She graciously agreed to share the story of “Corps Humain,” one of her favorite collections, with us. Read about it below. “The start was that I was thinking about Dadaism, the Dadaism of somebody like Marcel Duchamp, one of my favorite artists. I was a bit in that mood, [and then] I discovered a poem of Allen Ginsberg called “Footnote to Howl”—that is one thing. The second thing is that Patti Smith had a new record out and with exactly that poem she made a song. It was really this kind of magic moment when I heard it; it was really like a magic spell. This poem talks about everything—really everything—that is holy. I was already working with my Dadaistic idea of the body, and then to have all of a sudden this word and everything attached to it, I just had to work with that. [Ginsberg] says this also: “the body is holy, you are holy, the arm is holy.” I found this chain so beautiful: Allen Ginsberg makes a poem, Patti brings it into the world like 20 years later. I thought it would be beautiful if I could be one step further in the chain and bring the message that I found so beautiful to my audience. I was in love with this poem. One of the first things I decided was that I would make 2,000 tank tops with the word holy on them and give one to everybody who comes to the show, expressing that you are holy to me, that everybody is holy. Two thousand holy people in one space: Would that not be magic? That was my dream. And also to further this message that Patti and Allen started. Why a tank top? I chose a tank top because I think it’s beautiful. I often am inspired by children because their nudity is so innocent and so fragile, and if you put a man’s tank top on a child, which I did with my son, it just looked so holy, you know? By the way, I let him finish the show with Kirsten [Owen]. He said, ‘Oh, mom, can I walk too?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I can give some examples of this Dadaistic approach. I was making nude arm pieces and printing on them in big letters left arm, or right arm. It’s so absurd, but I thought it was so beautiful to say, ‘Well, my leg is holy. Look!’ I translated it in French, so instead of human body, I had corps humain. At a certain moment when I was cutting I found something really special, which was, to me, really interesting to work on. Maybe it’s not for somebody else, but anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot by doing that. I was working on the back of the garments and I opened the back in the middle and I folded it inside. I was trying to imagine that this piece that I folded inside would become the front of something that is under the garment; so like one garment that becomes two in the front with a naked back. You can see this on the last outfit, the one that Kirsten is wearing. She has a vest and a jacket and a trouser. From the front you would think it’s a three-piece suit, but the back is folded inside and becomes the vest of the jacket. So in the front, you have this three piece-suit, which is really chic, but in the back, you have the sensuality of a woman’s back. I developed this idea in a lot of things: sweaters, dresses, shirts. For instance, if you look at outfit number seven, Amber Valletta has like a T-shirt and a shirt, but these pieces are attached to each other. It’s one piece and her back is bare. It’s complicated [to explain]; it’s very difficult [as well]. I never wanted to make tricky clothes, I wanted them to look real but intriguing, and this idea had it all; I could make real clothes, like a vest and a jacket, but completely change them. In this particular collection I wanted to have some signal columns, real colors in complete contrast with my black-and-white story. It was important to me to find a way to [use color] because this stretch fabric that I developed felt really modern to me at that time, and I thought, I need these bodies of Yves Klein who are in this very vivid blue. It was a very new invention then, this fabric that was really stretching in a really nice quality that could do that close-to-the-body work. So the blue and the colors you’re seeing are in that material. Take look 77, you see that over the stretch there is a printed silk tulle? I liked that you didn’t really know [what the print was]: Is it wet? Is there a stain? I thought, I need a color like [Yves Klein blue], one that is really intense so maybe you’d forget about the material, you’d just see that color, and that could be interesting too. It was an experiment for me. You must not forget at that time you needed a lot of ideas because you were supposed to do shows of 85 outfits, so we made different stories. I like to juxtapose. I like the contrast between something that is cut really perfectly and something that is alive and draped. I love to work on cuts and I love to work on drapes. Those are the two things that are important to me. I love to make clothes, so I use all the possible ways and I love to put them in contrast with each other. I don’t know if it’s masculinity [or] femininity, but it’s hard and it’s soft and it’s strong and it’s fragile, all these things. I don’t think I use a lot of asymmetry; what I use is gravity and the way a garment falls and hangs. If you drop a T-shirt from one shoulder it will look asymmetric, but it’s not; it’s just a T-shirt that hangs. It can give you a certain nonchalance that is beautiful. That’s how this asymmetry came along, because I wanted to express a movement in my clothes and really to cut movement into the cut and into the shape. You can really translate emotions by how something is falling or hanging on a body. One little thing, which is nice to know too, is that in this collection, look 10, that jacket in particular came to be one of the absolute favorites of Patti and she wore it until it was completely broken, and now it is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To come back to the times we live in now, I think that we are very aware of our body, and I think our body is the most sophisticated machine. The older I get, the more that I’m aware of that—and the fact that I only have one. I cannot stitch a new one, you know. It’s my body and I have to take care of it and I have to respect it. With COVID this becomes very present. I think a lot of people, all of a sudden, realize that they have to respect their body and have to be careful. How did people react to this show at the time? Well, I must say I felt there was magic in the room when this music played and the spell of this, holy, holy, holy, and then these girls came out…There was something sacred about it. After the show, everybody was so happy with their tank top that they started wearing it, and in a minimum of time it became an iconic piece, and it’s still in the collection to this day.” Although I live and work in New York City, I’ve never been to the New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration in Times Square. For the many years that Condé Nast’s offices were adjacent to the location, I’d watch them set up for the festivities and observe the eager revelers who would wait close to the barriers beginning early that morning. I have, like most of us, often watched the party on TV, even if it was in the background at a big New Year’s Eve soiree (what are those again?). A solitary celebration of the New Year may feel much different from other holidays we’ve muscled through in 2020. While those moments, like Thanksgiving, felt like stark contrasts to our typical once-yearly gatherings with family, New Year’s Eve will undoubtedly be a reminder of the separation we currently have from our friends. But a virtual, at-home celebration is of course a small sacrifice to keep us moving towards the promise of a post-COVID 2021. And as we’ve all learned during the last 12-months, just because we can’t be together physically doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge in the fun and pleasure of getting dressed up. You may not want to don the usual novelty glasses or glittery party hat, but trust me when I say that a pair of big, festive earrings will lift your spirits just the same. So how does one pick the perfect statement earring? According to jeweler Matthew Harris of Mateo, “It should be stunning but still easy to wear.” He adds, “no one wants their earlobe to be dragged.” And Harris is right, of course. The weight of an earring is always something to keep in consideration as much as the shape, or the sparkle. Most importantly however, as Harris points out, “one should desire to always be fabulous.” We’ll toast to that! There’s no over-emphasizing how important it is for everyone to stay safe and stay home this holiday season. As tempting as a wild New Year’s Eve night may be at this point, the best practice is to socially distance and keep the soirees confined to our laptop and iPhone screens. That being said, there’s no reason why the sartorial-obsessed among us shouldn’t dare to dress with some style while ringing in 2021. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to get creative with our clothes again and celebrate fashion for fashion’s sake. After a year of spandex, cotton, and fleece, our New Year’s Eve outfits need not be bland. Even if we’re couch-bound for the big ball drop, there’s no shame in resurrecting our most fabulous outfits. It just so happens that the runways have given us a roadmap for great New Year’s Eve outfits, if only for the sake of sparking our own joy. Take, for instance, Vaquera’s no-pants party look from fall 2020. A cute pair of underwear paired with a sparkly blazer and fancy white button-down is just right for dancing the night away, barefoot, and in your own living room. There’s also Dries Van Noten’s oversized shirt, printed trouser, and statement necklace combo from fall 2020 and Paco Rabanne’s spring 2021 printed-dress-over-jeans trick. Both of these examples speak to an elevated approach to leisurewear, one that feels fresh at the end of the year. Another far-from-ubiquitous take on comfy clothes comes from Matthew Williams’s first collection for Givenchy. Embellished sweats are clutch for an at-home toast, as are matching metallic slides. And if you’re really in the mood for some fashion romance, nothing says “Auld Lang Syne” like a proper party dress a la JW Anderson, paired with a gilded bag and sneakers, and of course, a glass of bubbly in hand. For true fashion nerds, each of these runway moments reflect several of the top trends of the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons, including cocoon shapes, elevated loungewear, and mix-and-match layering. Staying safe and staying home are of course the top priority this New Year’s, but, as the runways have proven, there are plenty of fun ways to liven things up when it comes to your wardrobe. While 2020 may have disrupted the entire landscape of entertainment, few corners of the creative industries underwent as high profile a reckoning as that of film. With many of the year’s biggest blockbusters postponed, theaters around the world shuttered indefinitely, and studio lots put on pause due to Covid-19 restrictions, the industry was plunged into an unprecedented state of limbo which saw the future of cinema itself come into question. What it did mean, however, was that many smaller-scale and independent films—which may otherwise have been overlooked—emerged as some of the year’s most widely watched, and now most hotly-tipped for awards. Within this eclectic line-up, the costuming highlights proved to be equally unexpected: whether the trench coats and tailoring of late-1970s London in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, the lavish period costuming of Autumn de Wilde’s whimsical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or the high fashion spectacle of Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film celebrating the breadth of visual culture across the African diaspora. Where the world of cinema might go next is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that the future of fashion on film is in safe hands. Here, find Vogue’s selection of the most inspired on-screen fashion moments of the year—and what to look out for when the costume design nominations roll around in 2021. “We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” While all five parts of Steve McQueen’s epic exploration of Black British history, Small Axe, showcased the filmmaker’s keen instinct for costume, the most pin-sharp eye for style came by way of the second instalment, Lovers Rock. Charting the course of a night out at a Lewisham community center in 1977, the clothing served as a rarely-seen window into the impeccable sartorial turnout of the postwar Caribbean community in London, with spiffy patterned shirts and flared trousers for the men and gloriously colorful party dresses for the women. It was a joyous ode to the style culture of McQueen’s upbringing, brought to vivid life by costume designer Jacqueline Durrant. Given David Fincher’s notoriously exacting approach to constructing the visual worlds of his movies, it’s little surprise that the Hollywood Golden Age costumes of Mank—his retelling of screenwriter’s Herman J. Mankiewicz’s laborious journey to writing the script for Citizen Kane—should serve as one of the film’s standout features. Aside from the retro suiting sported by Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, the true stand-out looks came courtesy of Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Tuppence Middleton in a series of delicate pussy-bow blouses and glitzy draped gowns. The costuming cherry on the cake? An early scene at a party thrown by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst at his infamous Hollywood mansion, at which Seyfried shows up dressed as a majorette in a marabou jacket and feathered hat. No expense was spared on Disney’s epic, $200 million retelling of the story of the legendary Chinese gender-swapping warrior Hua Mulan—a fact which radiated through its lavish costumes. Whether it was the elaborate armor and battle wear sported by Liu Yifei in the titular role and her fellow fighters, or the medieval Tang Dynasty-inspired robes and wrap dresses worn for the matchmaking and courtly set pieces, the dazzling costuming served as an undisputed highlight of a film that otherwise proved divisive with critics. From the opening scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—featuring Viola Davis singing the blues to a rapturous crowd in 1920s Chicago sporting a swishy beaded gown and a flapper-style headscarf—it’s clear the audience is in for a rollercoaster ride of opulent Roaring Twenties fashion. Overseen by the 89-year-old legend of Hollywood costume Ann Roth, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom impresses not just for the gorgeous crushed velvets and brocaded silks of Davis’s wardrobe, however, but also for the razor-sharp tailoring worn by the film’s male cast—in particular Chadwick Boseman, who, in his final turn, has never looked better in a charcoal grey three-piece pinstripe suit. It’s a fabulously realized deep dive into an underexplored corner of Black fashion history that deserves to see Ma Rainey sit at the front of the pack for costume nods come awards season. With director Autumn de Wilde at the helm—known best for her music videos, but perhaps most familiar to fashion followers for the dreamy romanticism of her lookbooks for Rodarte—this year’s Emma adaptation was always going to be a treasure trove of flouncy, Regency-era style. Yet it proved to be all that and more, with costume designer Alexandra Byrne (the mastermind behind Cate Blanchett’s meticulously researched Tudor regalia in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth) dreaming up a pastel-hued, delightfully playful chocolate box of costumes that brought to mind the freshness and modernity of Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic take on period costuming for Marie Antoinette. It helped, too, that the star was Anya Taylor-Joy, who seemed to relish every moment promenading around gardens and mounting carriages in her kaleidoscopic line-up of coats and gowns, bringing this centuries-old tale to vibrant life once again. Released in July as a visual album to accompany Beyoncé’s soundtrack album for Disney’s The Lion King remake, Black Is King was the thrillingly escapist, Afrocentric fashion fantasia so many of her fans were yearning for this year. Working alongside her regular stylist Zerina Akers, the film featured everything from the crème de la crème of European high fashion by way of Balmain, Valentino, and Versace, to insider labels like Marine Serre, Area, and Molly Goddard. At the heart of Beyoncé’s sartorially ambitious vision, however, was her celebration of both African designers and those across the diaspora: from a striped bodysuit by Ivorian-American designer Loza Maléombho, to a black-and-white houndstooth gown by the Senegalese label Tongoro, Beyoncé and Akers firmly trained their spotlight on the continent’s often untapped design talent. Worn by Beyoncé and her costars with carnivalesque flair, the costumes were the most fashion-forward cinematic spectacle of the year. Few on-screen looks in recent memory felt as instantly iconic as Margot Robbie’s turn in 2016’s Suicide Squad as supervillainess Harley Quinn, topping lists of the most popular Halloween costumes every year since. But while the signature get-up of Robbie’s deranged antihero is now well-defined—dip-dye pigtails, a ripped tee, fishnet tights, and a baseball bat slung over the shoulder—this year’s Quinn-centric follow up, Birds of Prey, allowed her to show a little more variety. With costume designer Erin Benach finding inspiration in everything from comic books and Japanese street style, the fashion of Robbie and her gang served as a wilfully gaudy outward manifestation of the anarchic chaos they wreak across the course of the film. While Robert Zemeckis’s syrupy take on the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches—starring Anne Hathaway as an imperious and deliciously campy Grand High Witch—may not have won over fans of the notably darker 1990 Nicolas Roeg adaptation, it didn’t disappoint in the costuming stakes. Designed by Joanna Johnston, the nods to style icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, exaggerated proportions, and hypersaturated colors made for a gloriously eye-popping joyride through mid-century fashion history. (A special shoutout to the powder pink, 1950s-inspired opera coat worn by Hathaway as she begins a speech to her witchy coven, which she slides off to reveal a slinky, snake-detailed purple dress—a note-perfect shift from sweet to sinister that Dahl himself would surely be proud of.) While the bonnets and crinolines of a British period drama are always catnip for awards voters, Francis Lee’s moving lesbian romance Ammonite offers something a little more nuanced. Starring Kate Winslet as the 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning, who finds herself foisted with Saoirse Ronan as a new assistant, the pair stalk the gloomy beaches of England’s south coast on the hunt for fossils, when an unexpected romance strikes. Though their wardrobe may initially seem austere, it’s a reflection of the balance between conventional feminine dress and the practicality Anning would have required to do her job—an approach to costuming which neatly reflects the film’s broader resonances, as they find their love suffocated by the moral strictures of Victorian society. Designer Michael O’Connor’s name will be another to keep your eye on as awards season rolls around. The premise of Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton can roughly be reduced to this: a group of genetically blessed, Regency-era aristocrats search for love (or lust) during the London social season. But wait, there’s scandal afoot! An anonymous newsletter is hellbent on chronicling all their misdeeds! When the trailer first came out in mid-December, some compared it to an old-timey Gossip Girl. And sure, there are some (albeit anachronistic) similarities. Each has an anonymous narrator, to start: Lady Whistledown, the pseudonymous writer of Bridgerton’s tittle-tattle rag, is voiced by Julie Andrews, just as the CW’s mysterious blogger had Kristen Bell as its narrator. But with Bridgerton, the persona of Lady Whistledown is actually taken from history itself. Yes: Regency, or late Georgian-era England, was booming with “scandal sheets,” or newspapers strongly focused on personalities and juicy stories. Multiple factors led to this golden age of gossip: In 1695, London got rid of their “Licensing Act,” which previously limited the number of printing presses that could exist. Then there was the shrinking importance of the monarchy. In 1688, parliament significantly limited the power of the king and his court. So by the 1700s, more people could print more things, and they could print them about powerful people to boot. Come the late 1790s and early 1800s, a few additional societal factors played a part: One, a massive population boom—London went from under a million people in 1801 to around one and a quarter million in 1820. With that came a rise in crime, but also general debauchery like drinking and gambling. Two, there was a greater focus on arts and culture—a lover of beautiful things, the Prince Regent spent lavishly on paintings, buildings, and public works. Suddenly you had an aesthetics-focused society with a seedy underbelly and a weakened monarchy. The final accelerator? Little to no libel laws and, in 1814, the arrival of the mass-producing, industrial printing press. So what did these gossip rags say? Let’s examine some of the juicier entries. According to an article by Stella Tillyard in History Today, in 1769, various newspapers reported that “an assignation at the White at St. Albans between L—G— and certain great D—e, was disconcerted by the forcible intrusion of my lord’s gentleman.” This makes no sense to us now, but at the time, readers were used to public figures only being identified by their initials. “Readers would easily have identified the great Duke as the King’s brother the Duke of Cumberland, and his lover as the society beauty Lady Grosvenor, and looked forward with salacious anticipation to the next chapter,” wrote Tilyard. In the 1770s, Town & Country—not, to note, the American publication—began running a monthly column on the sex lives of England’s elite. Making frequent appearances were the Byron family (yes, like Lord). The famous poet’s father, Jack Byron, had a steamy affair in his youth with the married Lady Amelia Carmarthen. The press covered every sordid detail, including their “much tumbled” sheets and secret midnight rendezvous. Perhaps the most famous paper of them all was The Morning Post. It thrived on bawdy, light-hearted stories about high-society personalities and gossip. They even allowed “puffs,” or flattering paragraphs about individuals one could pay to be placed in a story. (That also worked the other way around: You could pay to have an unflattering paragraph killed.) Take this entry from February 1815, nonchalantly titled “The Late Faux Paux in High Life.” “On Sunday morning last, when Lord––– returned from Church, he was met on entering his house by his daughter, a child only six years of age, whom he accompanied to the door of the nursery, which he found closed, and on looking through the key-hole, he saw his Lady with an intimate friend of his Lordship in such situation that is not to be described,” they described in dramatic detail. “His Lordship instantly flew to his chamber, and seizing a pistol, returned to the door of the nursery at the moment it was opened by the adulterer, and leveled it as his head—by raising his arm he avoided the fatal effects of the ball, which he received in his right arm, by which it was shattered.” Sure, you didn’t know their exact identities. But how many guys in London high-society were walking around in an arm cast that winter?“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” The Morning Post also exhaustively chronicled the balls of London’s social season, which ran from Easter to the early summer. An account from the Prince Regent’s June 4, 1811, fête in the drawing room at St. James’s Palace, detailed exactly who danced with who: “The first couple who tripped on the light fantastic toe were Earl Percy, and the accomplished, and deservedly celebrated beauty, Lady Jane Montague, daughter of the Duchess of Manchester,” the paper wrote. (Two years later, the Duchess of Manchester left her highborn husband for a footman.) They even wrote a bulleted list: Earl of Digby with the Countess of Jersey, Lord Mark Kerr with Lady Elizabeth Clive, Lord Charles Somerset with Mis Metcalfe, and so on. Lady Whistledown is, yes, a fictional character. However the sensational coverage of scandal in the Regency era is not a figment of anyone’s imagination, but rather the earliest iteration of tabloid journalism and perhaps even blind-item blogs. Reading The Morning Post, in a way, feels like browsing Crazy Days and Nights or Lainey Gossip. The items are vaguely anonymous but also wacky, unhinged, and a bit questionable in sourcing. Yet you inhale them like cotton candy. As the Queen aptly sums it up in Bridgerton—“I like to be entertained.” We know, 2021 has not even yet begun. But our editors and contributors have been busy (and it’s already been a long winter). Here: Your curated guide to the best new books of the coming months.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” White Feminism is a stinging rebuke to the familiar feminism that has long featured a white face. Koa Beck, formerly Vogue.com’s executive editor, casts a gimlet eye over the history of organized gendered rights, from Seneca Falls to the National Organization of Women to the recently canceled The Wing, offering a sharp historical analysis of how mainstream feminism was designed by and for the privileged. And it’s not a benign neglect—it’s actually insidious, actively excluding from the movement women of color and issues important to them since the days of the suffragettes, and posing a threat to those women with a commodified and often racist system that can seem as oppressive as patriarchy itself. Even if it appears that feminist gains have been made in recent years, it’s a topic that remains devastatingly relevant—let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But Beck’s book is a call to action that looks onward to how we can, and we must, course correct, dismantling this feminism that wasn’t made for us and building a new, more inclusive movement. —Lisa Wong Macabasco In her fiction, Nuala O’Connor has often explored the private lives of historical figures; she did it in 2015’s Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson, and in 2018’s Becoming Belle, about singer and dancer Belle Bilton. She takes the same approach in Nora, a long but lively portrait of James Joyce’s wife and muse, Nora Barnacle Joyce. His companion for 37 years (and the mother of both his children), Nora has long sat at the center of Joycian lore; she was the model for Ulysses’s Molly Bloom and, in her youthful trysts, inspired two characters in “The Dead.” With Nora, O’Connor leans into that context—as she does into Joyce’s famously filthy letters to his “wildflower of the hedges”—depicting a relationship as lousy with passion as it was with chaos. Joyce’s drinking and uselessness with money form a throughline, as do their constant moves between Italy, France, and Switzerland. (A poet as well as a novelist, O’Connor has a musical ear for language; Joyce and Nora never seem to lose their lilt.) Yes, literati like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, and Sylvia Beach make requisite appearances, but Nora is principally the story of a Galway girl and her “Jim,” eking out some semblance of an existence far from home. —Marley Marius Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir, Aftershocks, has those residual tremors that follow an earthquake as its central metaphor, and the author had plenty of life-shaking events around which to orient her narrative. The daughter of an erudite Ghanaian U.N. official and an emotionally distant Armenian mother, Owusu grew up straddling cultures and following her impressive father. But the uneasiness in her life derived not from her fluid, third-culture upbringing but from the death of her father when Owusu was still a child; the abandonment of her mother; and a strained relationship with the stepmother who carried out the difficult process of raising her. There is something fairy tale–like about Owusu’s story, an orphan-like existence of struggle and survival, but there is no fairy godmother who rescues this heroine—just a growing sense of self-awareness to orient her in a troubling world. —Chloe Schama Even Didion’s B-sides are hits. This slim volume of uncollected nonfiction—mostly short essays she wrote for The Saturday Evening Post in the late ’60s as well as a few longer pieces for The New York Times and The New Yorker—is full of small pleasures: Didion’s trademark anti-sentimentality, for one; her rhythmic prose; her ruthlessness (see her assessments of gambling addicts, hippies, Nancy Reagan); her wit. In the charming “Telling Stories” (written for New West in 1978) we also get self-effacement: a piece about why she never made the grade as a young short story writer…complete with rejection notices compiled by her agent. “Cosmopolitan: ‘too depressing.’” LOL. —Taylor Antrim Off the success of her 2018 debut novel, The Pisces, author and Twitter sensation Melissa Broder has crafted a dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt. In Milk Fed, a young Los Angeles agent’s assistant battles her obsession with weight loss while simultaneously trying to bury her attraction to the zaftig Orthodox Jewish woman who works at the local fro-yo shop. The stealthy passion between the two women is given room to shine on the page; Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality. This isn’t a book to pick up casually, particularly if you’ve struggled with food issues, but it will linger with you long after you’ve finished the final page. —Emma Specter My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves: from the quaint, manicured town of Dunbar (hard not to read as a Princeton stand-in, where the author taught at the university for many years); to buzzing Shenzhen; to a Chinese bazillionaire’s compound, governed by a particularly barbaric modern feudalism; back to a landlocked American exurban town deemed Stagno, where the protagonist (the appropriately named, rudderless Tiller) has shacked up with a 30-something woman and her savant kid, both of whom are hunkering down because they’re quite probably part of the witness protection program. For all the self-proclaimed ordinariness of its protagonist, My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. This isn’t a book that skates through its many disparate-seeming scenes, but rather unites them in the heartfelt adventure of its protagonist, who begins his year “abroad” as a foreign land to himself and arrives at something like belonging by the end of his story. —Chloe Schama Eighth grader Eulabee’s best friend is the striking and confident Maria Fabiola. Until one day she isn’t—they have a falling-out as preteen girls tend to do. Eulabee is both ostracized by Maria and the group of middle schoolers she ringleads. For months they don’t speak. Then the police knock on Eulabee’s door—Maria, they say, is missing. Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part cultural reflection on San Francisco during the 1980s (telltale time references include mayor Dianne Feinstein and The Breakfast Club), We Run the Tides captures the pain that comes with the slow erosion of childhood friendships and the innocence they entail. And perhaps more significantly: Often, we never really know someone even if we think we do. —Elise Taylor There’s a particular pain to reading Gay Bar—a complex work in which author Jeremy Atherton Lin sets out to chronicle the gay clubs and bars of his youth in order to tell the story of LGBTQ+ spaces more broadly—during a pandemic, when queer nightspots are shuttering with no hope of government assistance. For that reason, though, Gay Bar is an essential read in 2021, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the cultural and historical significance of the “gay bar.” Hopefully, appropriately mourning the queer spaces we’ve lost to gentrification, police violence, the AIDS crisis, and the simple passage of time can serve as a ritual to honor the significance of those spots. —Emma Specter When Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, opened in the West End of London in February, just weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters, Stoppard told an interviewer that the show—his 23rd full-length work over a six-decade-plus career—was likely his last. If Leopoldstadt, a deeply personal piece that was hailed as a revelation by the critics who saw it during its truncated run, is indeed Stoppard’s last play, we now have Tom Stoppard: A Life, Hermione Lee’s magisterial biography, to remind us what we will have lost—and what a legacy Stoppard will leave behind. The 83-year-old author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia (and an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love), to name just a few of his groundbreaking works, is almost without argument the greatest English-language playwright of the past 50 years, perhaps only rivaled for both quantity and quality by his fellow Brit, David Hare. In her authorized biography, Lee, who has previously written about Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and Penelope Fitzgerald, shows a keen understanding of Stoppard’s work, making long-ago productions come to vivid life on the page, and writes empathetically, but with unsentimental clarity, about Stoppard’s sometimes complicated personal life. His marriage to author Miriam Stoppard, whom he had started seeing when he was still married to his first wife, was ended by his affair with actress Felicity Kendal, which was followed by a 10-year relationship with actress Sinead Cusack, which began during a rocky point in her marriage to Jeremy Irons. (In 2014, Stoppard married Sabrina Guinness, of the famed Guinness family and onetime girlfriend of the young Prince Charles, and today they live together in bucolic Dorset.) One notable feat: Stoppard seems to have stayed on good terms with all of his previous romantic partners. The saga of Tomás Straüssler, born in 1937, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, a wartime refugee who later went on to be the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, is a story of almost novelistic proportions. In Tom Stoppard: A Life, we have an author up to the task of telling it. —Stuart Emmrich “What you haven’t done by 30 you’re not likely to do,” John Updike had the nerve to write in his 1971 novel, Rabbit Redux, making a mockery of the idea of moving out of one’s 20s and into the decade when everything is supposed to magically fall into place. Half a century later, up against a gig economy and mounds of student debt, 30-somethings are finding the brass rings of adulthood harder to grasp than flying sticks of butter. Add to the mix a pandemic that, at best, freezes people in place and has done so much worse to millions upon millions. Upward mobility has been a pipe dream for years and years, as Kayleen Schaefer reminds us in her work of milestone myth busting, But You’re So Young. In 2014, for example, living with one’s parents became the most common living arrangement for Americans ages 18 to 34. As she did in her 2018 look at female friendship, Text Me When You Get Home, Schaefer mixes social science, psychology, original reporting, and personal anecdotes into a work of nonfiction that is as compact and refreshing as a soft-serve ice cream cone. She interviewed her subjects before and during the coronavirus outbreak, and as time passes, the similarities in their stories emerge. Crippling uncertainty weighs on all of the 30-somethings she followed, from the stay-at-home dad and the pair of Los Angeles stand-up comedians to the workaholic founder of a New York–based startup. Clearheaded and full of heart, You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out. —Lauren Mechling While the announcement of a new book by Kazuo Ishiguro would be greeted with feverish anticipation under normal circumstances, his latest novel comes with an added weight of expectation, as it is his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The beauty of Klara and the Sun is how neatly it dovetails with his 2005 dystopian masterpiece, Never Let Me Go, exploring similar questions of love and sacrifice through the lens of sci-fi. Set in the near future, the titular Klara is a solar-powered Artificial Friend, purchased from a department store by a lonely teenager named Josie; her reliance on the sun becomes an allegory for their relationship, with a subtle environmental subtext woven in as well. To explain too much of the plot would be to deny the strange, eerie pleasure of watching it unfold, but it’s a world that feels richly imagined and meticulously constructed, even while its mysteries continue to reveal themselves. Klara and the Sun once again marks Ishiguro as a master of the ache of missed opportunities and lost connections, as he unpicks the tangled web of how we forge relationships with others and how we deny them too. —Liam Hess Jessica Winter’s The Fourth Child begins with an epitaph from Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, a work of domestic horror in which a supernaturally unlovable fifth child disturbs the happy equilibrium of a complacent family. The difficulties of the fourth child that are introduced in The Fourth Child are neither supernatural nor entirely unlovable, but this child does disrupt the balance of the family into which she’s adopted, causing the mother, Jane, who has removed her new daughter from a bleak and somewhat murky existence in a Eastern European orphanage, to question the dimensions of her supposedly altruistic act. (Her family is faster to query Jane’s motivations.) Jane is a do-gooder, a devout Catholic and accidental anti-abortion activist raising her three biological children and one unruly orphan adoptee in upstate New York in the early ’90s. As those specific markers imply, this is a work of precise social realism, in which the intricate tableau of detail offers a backdrop for larger questions about morality, family, and obligation. —Chloe Schama At the top of the list of books that have sucked me in without me really knowing why is Emma Duffy Comparone’s debut collection of sharp short stories. The stories in this reminded me of early Mary Karr, with subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable. —Chloe Shama Mona, the titular character of Pola Oloixarac’s novel, is celebrated and dissolute, accomplished and directionless, a young writer finding a certain kind of escape at an awkward awards ceremony for “the most important literary award in Europe.” (“Come thirsty, and bring an appetite for Nordic delicatessen!” reads the notable first line of the book.) Mona rebuffs and yet can’t help but find herself corralled by the literary labels and categories used to this world: “Nothing worse than falling in with a bunch of declassé monolinguals,” she muses, an outsider even among the band of verbally skilled misfits. Dense with clever analysis of the modes and mannerisms of literary society—readings that resemble postmodern performance art, dalliances that swing from Hay to Cartagena—Mona is the kind of novel you read with a sense that you’re in on some very juicy gossip —Chloe Schama Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms. Eleven specific and crucial days—from May 19, 1950, to January 26, 1960—are given an almost novelistic treatment to imbue revealing moments in the painter’s life and work with color, shading, feeling, mood, and historical and social settings. If the book occasionally wanders into a kind of assumed verisimilitude, with an omniscient narrator rendering scenes with a level of detail that seemingly belies available historical and biographical facts—well, think of it as the price of admission to a thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by men. —Corey Seymour Sharon Stone’s memoir opens with her waking up at the hospital after experiencing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her in 2001. Having emerged as the quintessential sex symbol of ’90s Hollywood thanks to roles in hits like Casino and Basic Instinct, the actor’s flourishing career was stopped dead in its tracks by the health scare. Stone has spoken in broad strokes about the “nine-day brain bleed” and its aftereffects on her career, but never with as much candor as she does in The Beauty of Living Twice. Trim and elegantly written with her wicked sense of humor on full display, the memoir is catnip for fans who have never managed to crack the exterior of the elusive star. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes from her four-decade career are predictably fabulous, as are her general musings on relationships, sex, love, and religion. But it’s the personal revelations detailing the actor’s journey to rebuild her life after waking up in that hospital bed that will leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Stone and her tenacity. —Keaton Bell Kushner, the author of three acclaimed novels, including 2018’s dazzling prison-set The Mars Room, turns her fierce intellect to nonfiction in this essay collection. Her interests—vintage cars and motorcycles, the art world, the late Denis Johnson (whose work is clearly an influence here), tough underground scenes of all kinds—won’t surprise readers of her fiction, but there’s a rigorous specificity to the essays that draws you in. The unmissable lead essay, “Girl on a Motorcycle,” is a thrilling road-racing adventure set in Baja California, and “Not With the Band” (originally published in Vogue) offers insight into Kushner’s misspent youth, bartending at San Francisco rock venues. The Hard Crowd is wild, wide-ranging, and unsparingly intelligent throughout. —Taylor Antrim The stories that make up Mira Sethi’s debut collection are set in Pakistan, but that is about where the similarities among her protagonists end: A young actress negotiates power dynamics on and off the set; a divorced man strikes up an affair with his diplomat neighbor. A portrait of a diverse and varied country, told through the emotions and exploits of her characters, Are You Enjoying is a powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller. Sethi, a former journalist and an actor, feels as though she’s operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own. —Chloe Schama Indie rock fans may know Michelle Zauner as the face of the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, but her debut memoir, Crying in H Mart—which chronicles Zauner’s struggle to retain her Korean identity in the wake of her mother’s death—is sure to establish her as a singular literary talent. The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother, a love that is charted in vivid descriptions of her mother after death; in a time when people around the world are reckoning with untold loss due to COVID-19, Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift. —Emma Specter If there were a genre for popular postmodern literature, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev would fall squarely within it. Easy to read, and yet layered in both its organization and its impact, Dawnie Walton’s novel tells the story of ’70s musicians Opal and Nev and is alternatingly structured as an oral history and recurring editors’ notes from a journalist assembling the twisty, politically inflected tale. (The journalist just so happens to be the daughter of an erstwhile bandmate who had an affair with Opal.) —Chloe Schama A Bright Ray of Darkness is Ethan Hawke’s fifth book, yet it reads like a crackling debut: ruminative, raw, and seemingly pretty personal. In it, a film actor named William Harding does his first Broadway show—an ambitious production of Henry IV—while his marriage to a pop star very publicly falls apart. (As photographs of Harding with another woman saturate the tabloids, he can hear the public’s incriminating murmurs wherever he goes.) Divided, like a work of drama, into acts and scenes, the book wrestles with love, lust, fatherhood, and fame, but what it’s mostly about is the occasionally life threatening but ultimately redemptive hard work of making art. If you’ve seen or read Hawke in interviews, you’ll recognize his voice on the page: He’s written characters who speak of craft and ego and character in lengthy, scenery-chewing monologues, even during their off-hours. From another writer, it would be completely exhausting, but from Hawke—who has been a working actor since he was a teenager, and a fine one at that—you can’t help but bend your ear. —Marley Marius Much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s early work was a very specific study in character and place. In her latest, Whereabouts, she goes in a different direction, presenting a narrator who drifts through her life, unmoored and untethered. I had to squint hard after the first dozen pages or so to figure out where the story was even located—was that “trattoria” a giveaway of an overseas setting or more of a signal of a universal cosmopolitan urbanism? The very language has a slightly cool, distanced feel, which makes a certain degree of sense: Lahiri, whose native language is English but who has famously become fluent in Italian, wrote the story in that language and then translated it back to English. The slim and elegant book is an interior work, light on plot but high on the kind of introspection that can take place anywhere. —Chloe Schama Katie Kitamura established herself as a master of cool disquiet with her 2017 breakout, A Separation, a taut and cosmopolitan near-mystery about a young woman moving across the globe in search of her soon-to-be ex-husband, who has gone missing. Her fourth novel, Intimacies, is wholly set in the rainy municipality of The Hague, but its spirit is no less unmoored. The unnamed narrator is living in a city that does not feel like home, filling a temporary job as a translator in a war-crimes court and staying in the emptied apartment of a lover who may or may not be reconciling with his wife. There’s more than a tinge of danger to the story, with war crimes and street violence playing a small part in the narrative, while messages encoded in Dutch art and libraries curated by interior designers enliven the book’s intense interiority. Kitamura writes with forceful, direct prose that makes for a bracing read and leaves the reader mesmerized. As the narrator understands, “The appearance of simplicity is not the same thing as simplicity itself.” —Lauren Mechling Now that the gifts for your family and friends have been handed out, it’s time to treat yourself. The online after-Christmas sales are ripe for a well-deserved and unapologetically self-indulgent shopping spree. Now, ’tis the season for you to snag, say, a pair of Khaite boots you’ve been coveting or that structured Proenza Schouler handbag that’s long been on your wishlist. And if you’re thinking about getting dressed up for New Year’s Eve (even if it’s just to stay in the house), perhaps a dreamy, well-priced Ulla Johnson or Johanna Ortiz dress will lift your spirits. And these sales aren’t just about clothing and accessories either—we’ve also unearthed some amazing beauty products too. The best part about all of these wonderful finds? You won’t have to pay full price to get the things that will bring you a spark of joy.So read on to discover the best after-Christmas sale finds for you and your stylish start to the new year. Like most women, I too have mourned my beauty routine as the pandemic stretched through the spring, then the summer, and eventually the fall. My morning makeup, which once consisted of a quick, in-Uber application of concealer, lip/cheek/eye tint, and brow gel, was quickly whittled down to an in-bathroom application of whatever helped me look not half-asleep on Zoom calls, and I have been yearning for a high-maintenance haircut, a color appointment, and regular manicures (remember regular manicures?) for the past ten months. But I have had another, admittedly superficial concern as I have spent the better part of this year doomscrolling my newsfeed: my teeth. Somehow, over the course of transitioning to a social life-free, remote existence, my mouth started to feel, well, kind of gross. All the time. Not for lack of upping my oral care game. Like my newfound attention to long, drawn-out showers (the next best thing to a spa appointment), I have been diligent about brushing twice a day and flossing every single night. But it hasn’t been enough. I started developing all kinds of theories about why life in isolation has disproportionately affected my mouth: Perhaps it is my reduced exposure to other people, thus minimizing the amount I am talking? Or maybe something about not leaving the house? The idea that UV exposure had significantly impacted my tooth and gum health in the past is unlikely, but also, maybe it isn’t? “You have a gum infection,” my dentist told me when I finally broke down and made a cleaning appointment about six months after I was due, and three months after dental offices were allowed to reopen in New York City with stringent, CDC-compliant protocols. “But you’re not alone in feeling like your teeth have been falling apart. Almost everyone who has been quarantined has had that same feeling. I think it’s more of a psychological thing,” cosmetic dentist Marc Lowenberg,  D.D.S. hypothesizes; although that hasn’t stopped him from ruminating on a few alternative theories about our collective plaque build-up as well. “I can’t prove this, but when I was locked up in my house for three months earlier this year, I ate stuff that I never normally eat, and eating snacks—whether it’s carbs, or sweets—can definitely add to the build-up of bacteria that sits on your teeth.” More likely, though, he says, that grungy, filmy feeling is due to so many of us putting off regular cleanings, even as dental offices began reopening. Ironically, or perhaps because of the decreased rate at which we’re all going to the dentist, there has been a simultaneous uptick in at-home oral care brands that are looking to bridge the gap between humdrum maintenance and self-care. “I call it elevating your routine,” says Shaun Neff, the serial entrepreneur behind Beach House Group, which has successfully helped build Pattern Beauty with Tracee Ellis Ross, Florence by Mills with Milly Bobby Brown, and Moon, an Instagram-worthy oral care brand created in collaboration with Kendall Jenner. “Oral care is a category that is trust-driven,” Neff says, noting that it was important for him to partner with accredited dentists and hygienists when conceiving Moon two years ago. “But there was nothing on the market that was not only efficacious, but that looked beautiful on your shelf,” he continues—which has become increasingly important in these days of organizing (and reorganizing) your #shelfie. Moon’s on-the-go Teeth Whitening Pen, which Jenner fronts—and which “looks rad,” says Neff—has been the brand’s bestseller during the pandemic, offering easy, pre-Zoom touch-ups. But the brand’s splashiest launch arrived in October when Moon collaborated with streetwear designer Heron Preston on a toothpaste that lathered into an orange foam, Preston’s signature color. It arrived in limited quantities on the sneakerhead site StockX.com and promptly sold out. “We saw stuff on eBay that night for $90,” reports Neff. “There is not one other oral care player in the world that’s going to do a collab like this.” Maybe not, but others are certainly catching on to Neff’s success at bringing oral care into the Zeitgeist, whether with bold-faced partners (the comedian Kevin Hart recently teamed up with the subscription-based electric toothbrush brand, Bruush), or buzzy mission statements. Both Bite and By Humankind have launched a campaign against single-use plastic toothpaste tubes and floss cartons with innovative, self-contained, self-activated pellets and reusable jars, while Minti, an inclusive, black-woman-owned brand founded by New Jersey–based dentist Onaedo Achebe D.D.S. will offer similar tabs in a remineralizing and whitening formula—with an adorable, pink tin—when it launches next year. Meanwhile, the natural, non-stripping tooth whitening gel from Swiss brand VVardis is on its way to becoming a cult classic, and Cocofloss—the brainchild of sisters Chrystle and Cat Cu—has won over fans with its sustainable refill program and bright packaging to the tune of a social community that numbers nearly 50,000—for a dental floss! Flossing might be the category’s biggest white space, suggests JoAnn Gurenlian, R.D.H., Ph.D., the former President of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the International Federation of Dental Hygienists. “Lots of people don’t find it exciting to put their fingers in their mouth and floss between their teeth,” she deadpans. “But we need to do that to control inflammation in our mouth.” A Professor at Idaho University, Gurenlian recently signed on to be the Chief Clinical Officer for Fresh, the first and only custom-fit auto flosser, which launches next year, and which she thinks will revolutionize at-home oral care. “These kinds of products have made oral care more appealing to people, which I’m all for,” says Lowenberg. But gravitating toward good marketing won’t get you out of going to the dentist, he cautions. “Everyone should still be getting a good cleaning every four to six months,” Lowenberg suggests (while abiding by all necessary COVID safety precautions). Otherwise, he says, the three pillars of good dental hygiene remain the same as they’ve always been, whether you’re seeing them on Instagram or not: brush with toothpaste, use dental floss, swish with an antibacterial mouthwash, repeat. Carey Mulligan is no stranger to transformation. But in Promising Young Woman, a new rape-revenge film from Fleabag season 2 showrunner Emerald Fennell, the English actress flexes her chameleonic acting abilities with an array of striking beauty nuances.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” In the twisted thriller, which evocatively takes on sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era, Mulligan plays Cassie, the film’s “promising young woman,” who dropped out of medical school after her best friend’s brutal rape and is dealing with her trauma by seeking out vengeance on evil men (most fervently those hiding beneath the “nice guy” facade). During a typical act of vengeance, Cassie, who lives with her parents and has a barista job at a bubblegum pink coffee shop by day, transforms herself at night, playing to the male gaze and baiting predators before flipping the switch and, quite literally, catching them with their pants down. To add a certain grittiness, he razored out the ends and used Ouai’s Wave Spray to add some sticky hold and spike to the ends. Inspired by what Cassie would be doing in that scene, Wells created a blowup doll–inspired “wide-eyed, full-lipped” makeup look, playing up the “sad eyeliner” by layering on metallic blue eyeliner, double stacking falsies on the upper and lower lashes, and then overlining the lips to Joker-like effect with MAC Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up. “She’s spiraling,” emphasizes Wells. “It’s not supposed to be pretty.” From a beauty perspective, Promising Young Woman doesn’t just use the power of presentation in storytelling, charting the sea changes of a character in a palpable, visually stirring way, but it also provides provocative commentary on the sinister trap of the male gaze. At its most playful, this manifests in the “Blow Job Lips Makeup Tutorial” (featuring a cameo from Fennel as a beauty influencer) that Cassie watches to create a glossy, cherry red lip. Then, there’s the scene in which Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays a self-proclaimed “nice guy” named Neil and tells Cassie how pretty she is before mansplaining what would make her most attractive to him. “Why are you wearing all that makeup? Do you mind me asking?” he presses. “I never understood why women wear so much makeup. It’s like you are so much more beautiful without it. It’s like guys don’t even like that kind of stuff, you know? It’s this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women, and it’s fucked up. I want to see you. The real you.” Thankfully, when Cassie does show him the “real” her, there is catharsis, and lots of it, in her taking back the gaze. It’s just one instance of many that proves that for Cassie, makeup is both armor and a weapon. Netflix’s new costume drama Bridgerton is a candy-colored period piece with a difference — an irresistible romp populated by debutantes and dandies that throws off the shackles of the genre, combining diverse casting and queer romances with sex scenes that’d make Jane Austen blush. Created by Chris Van Dusen, executive produced by TV legend Shonda Rhimes, and adapted from Julia Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton novels, the eight-part series opens in 19th-century London. At its centre is Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the respected Bridgerton family, who’s set to be presented to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) and enter the marriage market. Joining her are the daughters of her hapless neighbor, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), but when they fail to attract suitors and Daphne catches the eye of a duke (Regé-Jean Page), the claws come out. For a show packed with bar-room brawls and secret assignations, bonnets and figure-swamping sacks would never do. Instead, every character is dripping in jewels, feathers and finery, hellbent on outshining one another. There are silk gowns rendered in ice-cream pastels, acid-bright florals, acres of ruffles, rhinestone-encrusted puff sleeves and wigs that could rival Marie Antoinette’s. The person responsible for these flamboyant outfits is 71-year-old New York native Ellen Mirojnick, the prolific costume designer behind cult hits such as Fatal Attraction (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Basic Instinct (1992). In 2013, she took home an Emmy for her work on Steven Soderbergh’s glitzy Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and followed up with spectacular creations in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). With Bridgerton, she outdoes herself again, transforming familiar Regency-era silhouettes into something fresh and fantastical. Ahead of the show’s Netflix launch on December 25, Mirojnick talks us through her references and the details — from the curved necklines to the added layers of tulle — that demand a closer look.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “At the very beginning, I thought I was just helping out. I’d known [Shonda Rhimes’s] Shondaland organization for a number of years and Sara Fischer, their head of production, called me. I went in to talk to Sara, [creator] Chris [Van Dusen] and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] to see if it’d be possible to create something on this scale. I also knew the Shondaland aesthetic and understood that this was not going to be like a Jane Austen adaptation. How could we shift the aesthetics of a period drama to make it feel scandalous and modern? Then they asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped in because the challenge was too great. I’d never put together a costume house before.” “We wanted to experiment with it by layering on other fabrics and embellishment. Using either organza, organdy or tulle, we could create another layer on top of the dresses that gives it a new sense of movement and fluidity. It’s almost like a trick of the eye that makes you see it differently.” “There were no bonnets, but we do nod to them with our hair accessories. We took that half-moon shape and created these straw [pieces] accented with flowers or feathers that sit on top of the head. Another no-no were muslin dresses. There’s a limpness to them that we didn’t want.” “We paid a lot of attention to the scooped necklines and how they fit the bust, as opposed to having a [straight] line that doesn’t allow you to see the body. This show is sexy, fun and far more accessible than your average restrained period drama and it’s important for the openness of the necklines to reflect that. When you go into a close-up, there’s so much skin. It exudes beauty.” “They’re the prominent family of the social season so we wanted their color palette to be powdery — these pale blues, silvers, and greens that feel like whispers of color. Later on, as Daphne gets older, the colors become duskier. The pinks and blues are richer and the silvers deepen as she grows and matures. She begins as a porcelain doll and becomes a woman.” Is there any more perfect dessert at Christmastime than the simple sugar cookie? The confection is delicious, yes, but also fun to make: you can cut them into trees, stars, or sleighs, and festively frost them any which way. They satisfy your sweet tooth and spread holiday cheer.“We quickly realized our responsibility to the history of the building and to the history of the neighborhood,” says Ross. “We took the preservation details very seriously during the process of getting it ready. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years, but before that, it had a vibrant history of Black entrepreneurship.” “We had a stolen summer this year,” says Babi Ahluwalia. “I think people will try to take back with a vengeance the summer they missed.” If and when they do, Sachin & Babi will be there to help. The brand’s pre-fall collection, arriving in stores in time for the sweltering summer months, is composed of effortless, away-from-the-body shapes made in natural fabrics like cotton and linen. The idea, they explain, was to use materials and techniques from areas around their production factories in India, resulting in flirty dip-dyed tops and dresses and elegant shibori pieces. Thinking smaller and more local allowed them to be more focused on their mission for the season. That mission is to be more carefree than usual, less concerned with the rigor of eveningwear or even the strictness of fashion rules. The pair have been noticing not only the evaporation of the daywear-eveningwear divide, but also that a younger customer is visiting their e-store for dresses and separates to wear to garden parties and holidays in the sun. (The Ahluwalias’ teenage daughters may be unofficial muses in this regard.) Whoever is buying the clothes—and for whatever event—the duo is adamant that “women want clothes that make them feel good in the moment.” On that front they have delivered lots to spark joy. Let’s hope we have a summer that allows it.

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