Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2013 i Vanity Fair

As far as the two costliest fiascoes of the last decade go—the Iraq war and the subprime-mortgage crisis—it’s difficult for many of us to move on in the absence of any sort of rational resolution. The Obama administration has shown scant interest in getting to the bottom of how we let these two disasters bring the country almost to its knees. Which is something of a mystery. We used to have a greater sense of outrage about blunders of this magnitude and a thirst for justice. Many of the architects of the Vietnam War became near pariahs as they spent the remainder of their lives in the futile quest to explain away their decisions at the time. (And the ones who didn’t should have.) In the wake of Watergate came…

FORGIVING GALLIANO0 I have just read the feature on Galliano [“Galliano in the Wilderness,” by Ingrid Sischy, July]. I live in a small town on Vancouver Island, in Canada. I am so removed from the fashion world that not only do I not understand it, I don’t really care. I almost groaned when I saw the story about someone who I thought was a pompous ass (only because of the worldwide coverage of his drunken racial slurs); however, it was so beautifully written that I almost wept. This man luckily hit bottom and is now living a life with integrity, and hopefully making his way back, day by day. I say “luckily,” as he is still young and I am sure he has many creative years ahead of him. One…

Even Jack Kerouac wearied of the road sometimes. “As far as I’m concerned the only thing to do is sit in a room and get drunk,” he once advised. Now literary-minded travelers can inhabit one of the rooms where he did precisely that: this month, the historic Marlton Hotel—built in 1900—reopens after an extensive renovation masterminded by Sean MacPherson, co-owner of New York City’s Bowery Hotel, Jane hotel, and a bevy of other Zeitgeistdefining properties on both coasts. Looming in the heart of Greenwich Village, the Marlton housed several counterculture icons over the decades: Lenny Bruce dwelled there while on trial for obscenity; so did Valerie Solanas, Andy Warhol’s would-be assassin. Kerouac holed up at the Marlton while working on the manuscripts for On the Road, Tristessa, and The Subterraneans.…

Marc Jacobs fall 2013 ready-to-wear. (marcjacobs.com) BLING RING Eva Fehren ring in 18-karat rose gold and black diamonds, $4,345. (twistonline.com) DRAMATIC NECKLINE Cartier Paris Nouvelle Vague necklace in 18-karat rose gold with amethyst, quartz, pink opals, and diamonds; price upon request. (cartier.us) IN THE LOOP Bulgari Catene watch in 18-karat pink gold and mother-ofpearl, $42,000. (us.bulgari.com) STAR-STUDDED Manolo Blahnik crystalstudded shoe, $1,475. (bergdorfgoodman.com) Proenza Schouler fall 2013 ready-to-wear. (proenzaschouler.com) BARELY THERE Balenciaga white calfskin T-strap heel, $775. (bergdorfgoodman.com) GOING DOTTY Proenza Schouler printed bag, $1,150. (proenzaschouler.com) FLATS WITH SASS Nicholas Kirkwood suede flat, $860. (nicholaskirkwood.com) Victoria Beckham fall 2013 ready-to-wear. (victoriabeckham.com) Céline fall 2013 ready-to-wear. (celine.com) INSPIRED ENVY Saint Laurent by Hedi Slimane Betty bag in calfskin leather, $1,450. (ysl.com) METALLIC ALLURE Roger Vivier silver leather pump with comma heel,…

‘Woodward” and “Bernstein,” they affectionately call each other—veteran journalist Scott McGrath and his eccentric young sidekick, Nora. Marisha Pessl, whose 2006 debut, Special Topics in Calamity Physics, made her a literary star, chronicles their harebrained but hypnotic exploits in Night Film (Random House), a psychological thriller about the apparent suicide of Ashley Cordova, the daughter of reclusive, deified horror-film maker Stanislas Cordova. Unlike in All the President’s Men, however, Pessl’s heroes chase demons not political but mystical, and at times even internal. The real and the imaginary, life and art, are dizzyingly distorted not only in a Cordova night film—which a fictional Time article calls “a spellbinding, emotionally harrowing experience”— but in Pessl’s own Night Film as well. McGrath’s prologue opens with the dictum “Everyone has a Cordova story, whether…

CORY A. BOOKER The Metropolitan Revolution, by Bruce Katz and Jennifer Bradley. “This book provides an innovative approach to politics—promoting pragmatism over partisanship and progress over our left/right divide. It lays out an excellent blueprint for expanding economic growth and a practical approach to healing our broken politics.” DAPHNE GUINNESS Artist and philanthropist, who supports the Isabella Blow Foundation. The Wagner Compendium: A Guide to Wagner’s Life and Music, by Barry Millington. “I’ve been listening to Götterdämmerung, by Wagner, which I’ve found absorbing. This book gives quite a thorough review of his life, which was as fascinating as his work.” ADAM MCKAY Director and co-writer of Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, out in December. Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn, and Twilight of the Elites, by Christopher Hayes. “For pure fun,…

This fall, as Tom Ford opens his first store in London, he will also introduce a new cosmetic collection, which fuses multicultural influences with precision. Four Atelier d’Orient scents—from Shanghai Lily to Plum Japonais—elegantly accent exotic ingredients from Asia, and new eye-color palettes, lip colors, and nail lacquers in neutrals and bolds add a polishing touch for every skin tone. Plus: all eyes will be on the ultra-length mascara, eye-primer duo set, and dual-ended liquid liner. (Makeup, $32–$65; Eau de Parfum, $210 for 50 ml.; neimanmarcus.com) —LENORA JANE ESTES…

Gray has been the signature shade of Christian Dior since the fashion house launched its first haute couture collection, in 1947. As a nod to its heritage, Dior perfumer François Demachy has translated the brand’s emblematic color into a subtle scent: Gris Montaigne. The 14th fragrance in La Collection Privée, it features a combination of Calabria bergamot, Turkish rose, sambac jasmine, and Indonesian patchouli that, like its versatile “Gris Couture” color, can be worn with anything. (E.D.P., $155 for 125 ml.; dior.com) —LENORA JANE ESTES…

For the first dance, the groom serenaded the bride with a song from The Little Mermaid: “Look at this trove, treasures untold/How many wonders can one cavern hold?” Sean Parker, the billionaire Internet wizard who helped create Napster and Facebook, knew the lyrics by heart. It was an endearing, corny, and over-the-top moment at an event most noteworthy, perhaps, for how it has been vilified as a symbol of the excesses of tech-industry wealth. The lavish ceremony and reception this past June—shown here, in detail, for the first time—took place not in a cavern, however, but in Big Sur, California, under towering 500-year-old redwoods. Yet treasures and wonders were much in evidence. As the flaxen-haired bride, singer-songwriter Alexandra Lenas, floated down the aisle trailing acres of silk, Parker’s chum Sean…

Googlies? The Egg and Bacon Brigade? Howzat? For centuries, cricket has been England’s national pastime—and a complete mystery to Americans. As Britain and Australia compete in one of international sports’ most celebrated rivalries, the Ashes, a “boundary babe” weighs in Cricket is the quintessential English sport—built on tradition, full of hierarchy, almost impossible for an outsider to understand, and perhaps the only game in the world that has luncheon and afternoon tea as part of a day’s play. An attempt to explain the rules would go something like this: A batsman goes out and is then in until he gets out. This goes on until the last batsman is out, apart from one who is still in and therefore not out. The thing is, you don’t have to understand it…

At the helm of her empire, Martha Stewart seems to be steering it toward the financial rocks, especially if Macy’s wins its breach-of-contract lawsuit. Will Stewart’s grandiose behavior sink her, or can the 72-year-old dynamo, with a new book on aging, make her golden years pay off? As she so often does in photographs, Martha Stewart looked relaxed and confident when she walked out of the front doors of the New York State Supreme Court building in Lower Manhattan on March 5, a hint of ironic amusement shadowing her smile as she looked out at the swarm of photographers gathered on the steps. She had spent the day testifying in the matter of Macy’s versus J. C. Penney and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, the public company that she founded, runs,…

Ultimate arbiter of style for more than seven decades, the annual International Best-Dressed List has always reflected the world it surveys. Following this year’s debut of VF.com’s Best-Dressed Challenge, AMY FINE COLLINS charts the cultural shifts since 1940—as the List picked its way through World War II, the jet age, the 60s, grunge, and other upheavals—while MARIO TESTINO captures a high-spirited gathering of friends and honorees QUEEN OF THE STYLE Daphne Guinness, who was named to the International Best-Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1994, alights from a Bentley outside the Savile Club, in London. For nearly three-quarters of a century, the International Best-Dressed List has been “to fashion,” as founder Eleanor Lambert observed, “what the Social Register and the Almanach de Gotha are to society.” Portrayed on these pages…

There have been very few new supermodels discovered, especially of the one-name sort—Gisele being a notable exception—since the species was first sighted, in the 1980s, a time when the clothes were sexier, the music was faster, and the girls walked harder. But today there is a new girl in town; in fact, there are two: Joan Smalls and Karlie Kloss. With just shy of 50 covers between them (they are ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, on Models.com) and more runway shows than we can count, these are the new faces of fashion—the new supermodels. While they were in hair and makeup, preparing to have their portraits done by the inimitable illustrator David Downton, I asked Kloss, 21, “What is the top excuse designers give for not using you…

Some people pursue fashion. Others have no choice. It comes as part of their legacy, thrust upon them in the manner of noble titles, recessive genes, or a craving for butterscotch. Such is the case with Lapo Elkann, the tawny-skinned, gingerhaired (formerly unruly, currently cut to the skull) Italian man-about-town who has teamed up with Gucci and its creative director, Frida Giannini, to bring his style—his collection of clothing and accessories for men and women is called Lapo’s Wardrobe—to the . . . well, not masses, but to the dandified few who approach extreme fashion as a certain kind of skier approaches the black diamond Brévent at Chamonix: as a challenge, something to conquer, then wear in the lodge during après-ski. Lapo is the grandson of Gianni Agnelli, the industrialist…

Though Princess Diana’s August 1997 death forever linked her to a flashy playboy named Dodi Al Fayed, that fatal Paris tryst may have been intended as a message to the man she’d just broken up with—Pakistani heart surgeon Hasnat Khan—the only one who would never use or betray her. Talking to those who knew the couple during their two-year relationship, SARAH ELLISON examines Diana’s yearning for normalcy, Khan’s fears about life with a global celebrity, and her struggle to bridge the chasm between them In London, there is a Princess Diana memorial fountain in Hyde Park, not far from the Princess Diana memorial playground. In gift shops, you can buy a Princess Diana memorial tartan. But perhaps the best-known monument to the late Princess can be found in the basement…

1 Sarah Ellison By her own admission, contributing editor Sarah Ellison is not much of a royal-watcher. But reporting “Diana’s Impossible Dream” (page 338)—her story on the two-year hush-hush love affair between Diana and heart surgeon Hasnat Khan—proved to be a homecoming of sorts. “I began my career in journalism as a Newsweek intern in Paris a few weeks after Diana’s tragic car accident,” says Ellison. “To return to Di’s life over a decade later felt like coming full circle.” 2 Mario Testino For this month’s portfolio honoring the best of Vanity Fair’s International Best-Dressed List, contributing photographer Mario Testino shot a lively coterie of taste-makers (page 286). But photographing these men and women was about more than just capturing what they wore. “Style means personality,” says Testino (shown at…

This month: mother issues. Unless, instead, the issues are actually with women—or possibly with car mechanics? Look, an overwhelming number of Americans think women can avoid turning into their mothers. And, it says here, we definitely don’t want women to fix our cars, smoke, or love Fatal Attraction, and, according to two other poll questions, we value bold and smart over sweet and pretty. So far, so good. Men also say they wouldn’t trade their mothers for a “perfect woman”—this woman presumably being the sort who is bold, smart, doesn’t like Fatal Attraction, and is a non-smoking non-car-mechanic. (Unasked was the question of whether men would trade Mom for a good mechanic.) But the most important quality Americans are looking for in a woman is that she should be a…

T he internationally renowned fashion designer Carolina Herrera, who was born and raised in Venezuela, presented her debut collection in New York City in 1981 with the encouragement of the inimitable Vogue editor Diana Vreeland. Since then she has parlayed her impeccable taste and classic elegance into runway sensations, dressing everyone from Oscar winners, dignitaries, and “It girls” to perennial members of the International Best-Dressed List. (She was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 1980.) Her desk, pictured here, is located in the Carolina Herrera headquarters, in N.Y.C. —PUNCH HUTTON Four-leaf clover from Austria. She goes every year. Carolina has sketched symbols for family members, which she uses in her datebook. A bronze horse by Miguel Berrocal. Carolina’s father, Guillermo Pacanins Acevedo. Lisa Lyon, in a dress by Carolina,…

Italian-born and London-trained Riccardo Tisci came to prominence at the helm of one of France’s most prestigious fashion houses, Givenchy. As creative director of the company’s men’s and women’s divisions, Tisci finds inspiration far and wide. Below, looks from the Givenchy fall/winter 2013 collection. Herewith, some of his favorite things … GROOMING PRODUCTS Shampoo Moroccanoil. Moisturizer Biologique Recherche. Cologne Sel Marin from Heeley Paris. Razor I go to a barber to be shaved. Toothpaste Marvis mint. Soap Hermès Paris. Who cuts your hair Luigi Murenu or Aki. HOME Where do you live Paris, Sixth Arrondissement. Favorite artists Marina Abramović, Jared Buckhiester, and Olympia Scarry. Sheets Frette. Stationery Benneton in Paris. Favorite app Instagram. Car Jaguar (a bottle-green one from the 70s). Favorite neighborhood restaurants Fred and Ginger, and Le Grand Véfour.…

SAINT JAMES SHIRT The original striped favorite. (saintjamesboutique.com) VINE Devotees of this app began posting six-second films nine months ago. Now there’s Instagram’s 15-second version. The verdict: Vine still rules. (vine.co) CÉLINE BAGS All the fashion editors have them, and every girl in the world saves up for one. (celine.com) MUSHROOM-BASED DERMATOLOGY The Cosmelan peel harnesses the power of kojic acid from Japanese mushrooms and targets hyper-pigmentation and skin re-surfacing. You’ll become obsessed. (avamd.com) DONALD JUDD INSTALL ATIONS (juddfoundation.org) JAN CRAIG HANDKNIT HE AD COVERS The golf addict’s old-school golf-club cover of choice. (jancraigheadcovers.com) ERES SWIMSUITS Made of double-thick bandage material—they do magic things for big busts, and the one-pieces fatten even the softest of bellies. (sunwear.eresparis.com/fr) THE PATRICK MELROSE NOVELS By Edward St. Aubyn Twisted but addictive. Movie rights…

Two of London’s most stylish girls, Sheherazade Goldsmith and Laura Bailey, have devised the latest in high-concept jewelry design—Loquet London, a part locket, part charm necklace reworked for the 21st century. Both women had grown up wearing lockets—vintage Victorian pendants with photographs inside. But invariably the delicate hinges broke from endless wear or the photographs were ruined from spontaneous swimming. So with the help and technical expertise of her uncle, jeweler Michael Ventura, Sheherazade went on a worldwide quest—to Hong Kong, New York, and Italy—to see if the mechanism she dreamed of was possible. After much sampling, a fine but hard-wearing and waterproof loquet (French for a simple door fastening) was born. The result is a modern take on a timeless classic: round or heart-shaped crystal lockets outlined in 18-karat…

Marc Jacobs has ventured into cosmetics, and there is no one better to master vibrant color than the king of whimsical fashion. The new Marc Jacobs Beauty collection features an ample array of palettes for every complexion from eyes to nails, each with a clever name and a smooth, pebble-like aesthetic. As an added bonus, Jacobs’s latest fragrance, Honey, has arrived, in an adorable, bumblebee-inspired bottle. Orange blossom and honeysuckle fuse with peach and vanilla for a warm floral that can add a little sweetness to any girl’s life. (Makeup, $18–$78; E.D.P., $92 for 100 ml.; sephora.com) —L.V.…

Tracie Martyn Shakti Resculpting Body Cream now comes in travel size, exclusively at Net-a-Porter. ($88 for 2.6 oz.; net-a-porter.com) Clé de Peau Eye Contour Balm Anti-Wrinkle is packed with powerful moisturizing agents. ($140; barneys.com) Chanel Les Beiges Healthy Glow Sheer Colour S.P.F. 15 comes in seven different shades. ($57.50 each; chanel.com) Urban Decay Anti-Aging Eyeshadow Primer Potion firms and hydrates while setting eye makeup for 24 hours. ($24; urbandecay.com) Laura Mercier Bonne Mine Healthy Glow for Face & Cheeks Crème Colour Palette; 100 percent of profits benefit cancer research. ($48; lauramercier.com)…

What You Should Know About A PANOPLY OF ECCENTRIC BIOGRAPHICAL DATA RE: TV’S FIRST LADY OF NETWORK DRAMA Shonda Rhimes—writer-creator of Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, and Scandal, three smash hits once simultaneously on the air—is a three-time Emmy nominee, a powerful spokeswoman for racial diversity on television, and a deft coiner of pop-lexicon mainstays (McDreamy! McSteamy! Va-jay-jay!) that we challenge you to try to forget. But the higher Rhimes ascends in the Hollywood pecking order, the more she clings to her writerly, Dartmouth-educated roots, skipping L.A. nightlife to raise her two adopted girls, listen to composer Rachel Portman’s tunes, or plow through heaps of books on her nightstand. Here, the show-running geek gone chic on her habits, habitats, and (childhood) habiliments. A POLITICAL junkie turned political-thriller writer, she says her…

Saddled with that most rarefied burden—a 12,000-acre family estate—Charles Henry Gordon Lennox, Earl of March and heir to the Duke of Richmond, turned his family seat, Goodwood, into a gearhead’s paradise, creating two of Europe’s biggest motoring events. It’s NASCAR meets Downton Abbey I had a dream. I’m in a car. It’s a Maserati. I’m in the passenger seat. The engine makes a noise like Johnny Cash picking up the soap in Folsom Prison. We’re on a country lane. It’s narrow, with twists and turns. There are people on both sides screaming at me and waving. They look frightened, but I can’t hear what they’re saying. We’re going far, far too fast. And then suddenly ahead of me there’s a white brick wall—it charges at the car. In a panic…

The 74th Annual International Best-Dressed Poll A NEW FIRST LADY—CHINA’S PENG LIYUAN—sails ONTO THE LIST, joining THREE TOP ATHLETES, POP MUSIC’S REIGNING QUEEN, AND A ROLLING STONE. THE BEST-DRESSED FIELD MAY BE EVER shifting, BUT THERE’S SOME CLASSIC GLAMOUR behind THE LOOKS OF THIS YEAR’S HONOREES MEN Francesco Carrozzini Luca Cordero di Montezemolo Ronan Farrow Isaac, Otis, and Tara Ferry Alexander Gilkes Jack Huston LeBron James Henrik Lundqvist Charlie Siem Justin Timberlake WOMEN H.R.H. Princess Letizia of Asturias Beyoncé H.R.H. the Duchess of Cambridge Jill Kargman Peng Liyuan Brooke Shields H.R.H. Princess Madeleine of Sweden Charlize Theron Kerry Washington Dasha Zhukova PROFESSIONALS Victoria Beckham Tory Burch Maureen Chiquet Carmen Dell’Oreefice Dree Hemingway Caroline Issa Ricky Lauren Jenna Lyons Alice Temperley Stella Tennant COUPLES Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady Tabitha Simmons…

A month after ace programmer Sergey Aleynikov left Goldman Sachs, he was arrested. Exactly what he’d done neither the F.B.I., which interrogated him, nor the jury, which convicted him a year later, seemed to understand. But Goldman had accused him of stealing computer code, and the 41-year-old father of three was sentenced to eight years in federal prison. Investigating Aleynikov’s case, MICHAEL LEWIS holds a second trial To Sergey Aleynikov’s new way of thinking, every American could benefit from some time in jail, but in the event that you are yourself actually arrested and sent away, “there are certain practical aspects to keep in mind.” First, dress warmly. Detention centers tend to be freezing cold, even in summer, and so if you happen to be wearing shorts or short sleeves…

Since infancy, Michael Kors has been surrounded by an eclectic group of women—and possessed of an instinct for what they want. Today, at 54, he’s one of the most recognized working fashion designers on the planet (thanks to Project Runway), probably the happiest, and certainly among the richest, his clothes worn by everyone from Angelina Jolie to Michelle Obama. EVGENIA PERETZ talks to Kors and a style harem, including Debra Messing, Iman, Sigourney Weaver, and Aerin Lauder, about his irresistible mix of class and mass FRIENDS AND FAMILY Models Kurkova and Karmen Pedaru with Kors. MODELS WEAR CLOTHING, SHOES, AND JEWELRY BY MICHAEL KORS. Picture Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper. Only it’s lunch, at the Midtown restaurant Michael’s. The disciples scattered around the long table are 13 very glamorous…

André Leon Talley is an imposing, if improbable, fashion landmark, steeped in style history, his judgment sought by top designers. At 64, light-years from the segregated South of his childhood, the new editor of Numéro Russia has apprenticed with Diana Vreeland, gone clubbing with Karl Lagerfeld, and seen Anna Wintour in the dressing room. Visiting Talley in White Plains, VANESSA GRIGORIADIS hears about his love life, his avoirdupois, and the importance of gloves, darling There is perhaps no more unlikely milieu to observe André Leon Talley than the Scarsdale branch of Balducci’s food market, about 30 miles north of Manhattan, but it was there that Talley, one of the top arbiters of the fashion world, arranged to meet for lunch. Talley, 64, recently of Vogue and now heading Numéro Russia…

A style icon since she burst onto the 1960s Swinging London scene as a singer and actress—and inspiration for the eponymous Hermès handbag—Jane Birkin cherishes youthful adventures and a childhood felt monkey What is your idea of perfect happiness? Christmas with my girls, my brother, my sister, and all the children. What is your greatest fear? Someone dying. Which historical figure do you most identify with? Eleanor of Aquitaine. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? Cowardice. What is the trait you most deplore in others? Showing of. What is your greatest extravagance? Giving presents—adore it. What is your favorite journey? Going to Brittany. What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Washing every day! On what occasion do you lie? So as not to wound others, so…

MARIO GRANDE From the roster of the 73-year-old International Best-Dressed List, Mario Testino selected 34 friends to shoot on location in London and Manhattan, over the course of two epic days. As if this undertaking were not challenging enough, Testino threw into the mix a motley tribe of supporting players, including Moses Berkson, grandson of List founder Eleanor Lambert; a mustachioed magician; a gaggle of male models; a yellow Lamborghini; and one live animal—Marcus, Reinaldo Herrera’s brindle boxer. (Marcus remained off-camera, serving instead as V.F. assistant Theresa Grill’s “partner in crime,” she says, during the marathon New York session, in an Upper West Side town house.) The miraculous feat of coordinating conflicting schedules and an Ali Baba’s cave of clothing and jewels was accomplished by V.F. fashion and style director…

Move over, Samantha Ronson! Here comes Mad Marj, a.k.a. Marjorie Gubelmann, Palm Beach adding-machine heiress, best-dressed-list favorite, Vie Luxe candles founder, and—much to the shock of her fellow Park Avenue mothers—Downtown’s newest vinyl-spinning sensation. “The truth is, I was D.J.-ing on my college radio station in 1987,” Gubelmann reveals, “and I was called Mad Marj.” Flash-forward to 2011, when editor Mickey Boardman had Gubelmann D.J. a Paper-magazine party for fun, and she realized “I hadn’t been that happy in years.” After six months of study at the Scratch DJ Academy in NoHo to catch up with the latest techniques, she was ready for her first paying job: designer Chris Benz’s Fashion Week after-party at the Standard in the East Village. Since then she’s D.J.’d for an Obama fund-raiser in an…

What other music do musicians listen to while they’re recording an album? Some are so focused on their own work that they listen to no one else. Others listen to music from their current competition. And some—like HAIM, three sisters who release their first full-length, self-titled album next month—have eclectic taste. Danielle, Este, and Alana Haim (rhymes with time) all listen to, and have been inspired by, a variety of music—from Prince to Joni Mitchell, Serge Gainsbourg to the Spice Girls. And Haim utilized all those infuences while figuring out how they wanted their own songs to sound. “When we went into the studio to record,” says lead singer Danielle, 24, “there were no rules. We experimented with drum machines and keyboards; we tried out everything that was in our…

Radical communities: The personal and political are impossibly intertwined and disobedience takes the day in Jonathan Lethem’s Dissident Gardens (Doubleday), an old-fashioned “statement novel” taking the form of an unruly, multi-generational, radicalfamily saga that trips through the history of American political engagement from the McCarthy era to the Age of Aquarius to the Occupy movement. Margaret Atwood returns to the post-apocalyptic future and the adventures of a ragtag clan of tortured humans and genetic hybrids in MaddAddam (Nan A. Talese) to complete her dazzlingly imagined trilogy. The tenaciously camera-shy genius Thomas Pynchon emerges with a new novel, Bleeding Edge (Penguin Press), and geeky lit fans and haberdashers the world over celebrate. Also this month: Paul Harding’s Enon (Random House) distills life in small-town New Eng land with the same specificity…

’Oh, they know who I am—I’m on a blacklist,” journalist Clarissa Ward says of the Syrian government. At five feet 10 inches, the intrepid CBS News foreign correspondent would be difficult not to notice. Blond hair tucked in a chignon, she looks like a tall Catherine Deneuve—albeit a Deneuve who speaks Arabic (as well as Mandarin and Russian) and, in fact, was once a stand-in for Uma Thurman on the set of Kill Bill. In Syria, where Ward has been reporting on the civil war, she is unmistakable: often the lone American network correspondent. “I am not an adrenaline junkie,” insists Ward, 33, who has covered conflicts in Afghanistan and throughout the Middle East. Nonetheless, she has sneaked into Syria nine times, always without a phone, to avoid being tracked…

In Larchmont, New York, in 1977, when Peter Manning was 10, he asked his mother for a pair of bell-bottom cords. “Oh, sweetie,” came the response. “I can’t buy you bell-bottoms. By the time I shorten them, they won’t be bell-bottoms anymore.” Manning stands at five feet eight, which is not especially short, but short enough to be looked down on by the clothing industry at large. “It’s torture,” he says of the need to alter even his jeans and shirts. “It’s like paying a tailoring tax.” Last year, he started a collection of classic sportswear (petermanningnyc.com) catering to the roughly 25 percent of adult American males who are his height or under, and received thousands of orders for his slim-fit chinos ($79.50) with inseams as short as 27 inches.…

Michael Kors’s world domination—chronicled in “Kors Célèbre,” on page 320—continues with a three-part fragrance-and-beauty collection that caters to every mood: Sporty, Sexy, and Glam. With the likes of Mario Testino and Stephen Gan as campaign visionaries, the fashion impresario’s colorful, fun venture has proved a blockbuster aesthetic treat. Items in this beautified trifecta range from the “Glam Jasmine” scent to a “Sporty Glow” bronze powder, practically rendering the unique sets a cosmetic version of the Spice Girls. (Makeup, $18–$60; E.D.P., $95 for 100 ml.; macys.com) —CAT BUCKLEY…

HERE COMES THE BRIDE Alexandra Lenas, in Elie Saab, with Sean Parker. Sting sings to the bride and groom. Just desserts. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros band—and friends. Alex Ebert, of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, who played at the rehearsal dinner. Designer Ken Fulk and event planner Preston Bailey oversaw the look and feel of the ceremony. Olivia Munn Zynga’s Mark Pincus and his wife, Alison. The lounge area. Mary Charteris, Mila De Wit, and Jamie Burke “The feast pavilion,” courtesy of Big Sur Bakery and Paula LeDuc Fine Catering. The six-tier, nine-foot-tall wedding cake. Sean and Alexandra Parker Ricky Van Veen and Allison Williams Daniel Kruglikov, Sean Lennon, and Alexander Dexter-Jones at the rehearsal dinner. Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and Kate Greer. Kyle MacLachlan and Desiree…

Manolo Blahnik—“the sultan of slippers,” “holy man of heels”—turned up for lunch with me in a typical flurry, like a hummingbird or the white rabbit who’s always late for a very important date. “Vraiment!” he announced, flopping into a booth at the Monkey Bar, a stroll from his Midtown Manhattan store. “I’m exhausted.” This adorably eccentric, handsome man of old-world charm favors Anderson & Sheppard suits and speaks five or six languages—sometimes, it seems, simultaneously, sometimes invented. He was wearing what he described to me as his tweed Windsor windowpane “prairie-green lion-tamer Ringling Bros. circus suit.” His shoes were buckskin “gangster brogues.” “I’ve never been interested in fashion,” he said. “I do fashion—yes. But let’s say I don’t follow it.” “Women kill for your Manolos,” I said. “People say things…

Whether judged by hankies used, sighs heaved, or pulses quickened, a truly fine romantic movie can burn its way into generations of hearts. From the star-crossed (Casablanca, Roman Holiday, Brokeback Mountain) to the triumphant (It Happened One Night, Say Anything . . ., Working Girl), LAURA JACOBS falls for the 25 greatest love stories the movies ever told Any list of the most romantic movies—this one narrowed to movies in the English language—is going to draw sighs and harrumphs over beloved films left off. Quite a few unforgettable love stories are in movies that don’t comfortably fit the category (Gone with the Wind, for instance), and the contemporary rom-com, while classifiably romantic, can seem as slight as the dandelion—a sunny flowering, a puffball dispersed on a breeze. Movies that reach…

AGE: 23. PROVENANCE: Gold Coast, Australia. GIRL NEXT DOOR: Robbie’s big break came as a teenager when she was cast in her home country’s beloved long-running serial Neighbours. “It’s a soap opera, but soaps aren’t really the same as they seem to be here. It’s just like a Vegemite sandwich—it’s an Australian staple.” TAKING FLIGHT: Robbie moved to L.A. five days after her contract ended on Neighbours, and only a month later landed a role on ABC’s retro series Pan Am. “I think it was after close to a year being on Neighbours that I was kind of like, O.K., this is what I’m going to do. America’s the next step.” ON THE MARKET: Robbie makes her leap to the big screen later this year, playing Leonardo DiCaprio’s wife in…

England’s Wars of the Roses rage again, on the BBC series The White Queen, based on Philippa Gregory’s novel cycle “The Cousins’ War”; it premieres here this month on Starz. The eponymous heroine, Elizabeth Woodville, is played by Rebecca Ferguson, 29, who happens to be neither blonde nor British. A natural brunette with a British mother, Ferguson has from the age of 15 acted on TV as well as the big screen in her native Sweden, where she lives outside Stockholm with her boyfriend and their son. The formidable Janet McTeer is her ambitious mother in the series, and King Edward IV is Max Irons, son of the actors Jeremy Irons and Si néad Cusack. Ferguson recalls how she got her first English part: “I fly to London, and my…

With Short Term 12, director Destin Daniel Cretton achieves the impossible: a pitch-perfect feelgood film about foster care. Winner of the 2013 Grand Jury Prize at SXSW, the film, out this month, stars Brie Larson (United States of Tara) as Grace, the youthful, passionate child-care worker, and John Gallagher Jr. as Mason, her co-worker and boyfriend. Nate, the newbie staffer, played by Rami Malek, is modeled on Cretton’s own experience working at a foster-care facility in California just after graduating from San Diego State University. “I got the job because I couldn’t find a job anywhere else—they were hiring anyone who seemed normal,” says Cretton, 34, a Maui native who grew up making movies with his grandmother’s video camera. “I went in with the grandiose idea that I might be…

In the late 1930s, Salvador Dalí called the Place Vendôme atelier of Elsa Schiaparelli the “beating heart” of Paris. Inventor of power shoulders, wedge shoes, the jumpsuit, and the color shocking pink—a hue composed of “all the light and the birds and the fish in the world,” she said—Schiaparelli ceased making clothing in 1954. Now fashion impresario Diego Della Valle has awakened the house of Schiaparelli from its 60-year slumber, and summoned virtuoso designer Christian Lacroix to assist him in its galvanic resurrection. Initially, Lacroix felt a little “frightened,” he says, of taking on the “sacred sphinx” on her own turf—even the view “from the Schiap salon is one of the most unforgettable panoramas I have ever seen.” But Lacroix has also felt an almost supernatural affinity with Schiaparelli since…