FASHION Summer 2024

ANNIKA LAUTENS WENT INTO HER PARIS HILTON ENCOUNTER with a lot of apprehension. “I thought it was going to be a really hard interview to do,” our fashion news and features director shares. She spent two solid weeks, eight hours a day, immersed in Hilton’s world prior to meeting FASHION’s Summer 2024 cover star in Los Angeles for “Glow Getter” (page 74). “I watched her documentary and read her book, and there’s been so much written about her,” says Lautens. “That’s what was so concerning. How do you find something new to say about someone who has been in the media for 20 years, since they were 19 years old? And then she completely surprised me. Everything about her seems so artificial on social media. But I was really struck…

Mir Yu’s fascination with fashion can be traced back to his grandmother’s chiffon scarf. Growing up in the Jiangxi province of China, the content creator recalls seeing the gauzy pastel-pink piece tucked away in various parts of her home over the years, like a treasure waiting to be found. “I loved playing with it—wrapping it around myself as a cape and as a skirt,” he says, emphasizing the fluidity of the accessory. Seeing Yu’s style now, it’s not hard to believe that his sartorial sensibilities came from a single shape-shifting garment. Take one scroll on the 33-year-old’s Instagram page, @mirintheparadise, and you’ll find a confection of colourful costumes that blur gender codes and deliver heavy doses of drama. His getups include everything from frothy tutus and towering headpieces to risqué…

1 Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel famously vacationed an hour away at Eaton Hall, the residence of her longtime beau, The Duke of Westminster, where hunting and riding were two of her favourite holiday pursuits and where she fell for the mannish, tweedy style of rural English attire. 2 Manchester has a strong connection to the clothing industry. It was once the textile capital of the world and known as “Cottonopolis” thanks to its advancements in factory production. By 1860, half of the world’s cotton was being processed in Manchester. 3 Innovation and creativity remain characteristics of the region, though more so now in artistic pursuits such as architecture (Norman Foster), filmmaking (Danny Boyle), music (Joy Division, New Order and Simply Red) and writing (Jeanette Winterson). Chanel creative director Virginie Viard is clearly a fan.…

Longtime Chanel fan and U.K. It girl Alexa Chung had no problem spotting the Britishisms in the latest Métiers d’Art collection, especially in the tweeds and baker-boy caps. But she also feels that creative director Virginie Viard accurately captured the population’s number one preoccupation. “We’re always concerned about the weather,” Chung commented after the show in one of the pubs near where the event took place. “The girls wore scarves or knee-high socks—things that I think are idiosyncratic quirks that British people have. What we wear needs to be weatherproof—something that you can enjoy the sun or rain in.” Chung has racked up many Chanel memories over the years, but one of her favourites is from after a resort show in the south of France and has more to do…

Q: THE PRICES OF PEARLS DIFFER DRASTICALLY. WHAT SHOULD I BE LOOKING FOR IN A GOOD-QUALITY PIECE? A: Before the process of culturing pearls became mainstream in the 1920s (famed Japanese pearl farmer Kokichi Mikimoto was one of the first few to file a patent), natural pearls were often dangerously and painstakingly sourced by divers from the bottom of the Persian Gulf. Considered one of the rarest and most expensive gems at the time, they were hailed as the ultimate status symbol. Now, except for antique pieces, nearly all pearls are cultured—meaning they’re created with the help of pearl farmers who insert a “seed,” usually a small bead or piece of natural tissue (or both), into a living mussel or oyster. The seed is eventually coated in the same material…

If you know me, you know that I love a hyper-fixation. SZA’s SOS album—specifically the song “Snooze”—plays endlessly on repeat during my daily Hot Girl Walks. Ferragamo’s most recent Fall and Spring collections live in my mind rent-free, to the point that I might as well have been on the design team. Even the man I met briefly two days ago in the movie-theatre line has me convinced he may be my future husband simply because our zodiac signs match. (I’m a Gemini, and he’s a Libra.) But all of this pales in comparison to my latest obsession: the jumpsuit. It all started when I saw Zendaya and Timothée Chalamet at the Dune: Part Two premiere in Seoul, South Korea. At the time, rumours had been swirling about some sort…