Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2024 i Vanity Fair

Redolent of fine china, this petite Prada handbag features textured florals—little reliefs made in spazzolato (brushed) calfskin leather—that mimic the effect of hand-painted porcelain. Inspired by delicate tableware, the dainty hard-bodied bag is a true pocketbook: Keys or a tube of lipstick will fit, a phone not so much. No need for any of that, because it’s pretty enough for the curio cabinet.…

■ Style File DAILY UNIFORM: Fried Rice T-shirt (6), Frapbois jeans. BELOVED BRAND: Ganni. GO-TO SHOE: The Mrs. Maisel Midheel by the Office of Angela Scott (3). EARRINGS: Maria Tash Handcuff in white gold. WRIST CANDY: Rolexes from my mother’s vault. STYLE ICONS: Michelle Yeoh and Rina Sawayama. ■ Self-care FACE WASH: Dermalogica Special Cleansing Gel (2). SERUM: SkincCuticals C E Ferulic (10). MOISTURIZERS: Rhode Barrier Restore cream during the day and Shiseido Vital Perfection Uplifting and Firming Cream Enriched at night (9). MAKEUP ROUTINE: Shiseido Sports BB cream, Dior Forever Skin Correct concealer (11), Sephora Collection Charged Up liquid eye shadow, Sunnies Face Fluffmatte lipstick, and Nature Republic Essential lip balm. HAIR CARE: RYO Damage Care & Nourishing shampoo and conditioner and a Wet Brush. PERFUME: Maison Margiela Replica…

LOCATION Virtual, US, and international camps; Midwest PHILANTHROPIES Kode With Klossy, Gateway Coalition MISSION Provide technical skills for youth; ensure access to abortions and wraparound care Kode With Klossy, the free coding camp for girls and gender-expansive teens, has seen exponential growth since its founding in 2015. “It’s this ecosystem,” supermodel, philanthropist, and founder Karlie Kloss says—and a self-sustaining one: Hundreds of alums return to the camp as instructor assistants. With 3,000 scholars from 90 countries in attendance this summer, both in person and virtually, the influence has rippled into multiple curricula, a teacher-training program, and supporting alums as they prepare to enter the workforce. “She’s out there making sure that girls get a chance to fall in love with tech,” says French Gates, “and not only see themselves in this…

LOCATION Atlanta PHILANTHROPIES The Sara Blakely Foundation MISSION Support women through education, entrepreneurship, and the arts Sara Blakely’s greatest mission is “to change the way the world sees and values women,” including women themselves. When she founded Spanx in 2000, hardly any primary patent holders were women. In 2024 she pledged to send a thousand girls, in kindergarten through sixth grade, to Camp Invention, a five-day camp put on by the National Inventors Hall of Fame with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. “She uses her platform to educate other entrepreneurs, to mentor them and say, ‘You can do this too,’” French Gates says. In 2019 Blakely partnered with 3DE, a nonprofit dedicated to reengineering high school education, to create a “mindset series,” inspired in part by her own…

What is your idea of perfect happiness? A meal alfresco with people I love. Which historical figure do you most identify with? I would never presume to identify myself with any historical figure. Okay, Michelangelo. I could only ever hope to be like that person. What do you dislike most about your appearance? How much time do you have? In short, I would like to be younger, taller, and have my hair back. What is your greatest extravagance? Face cream. I love La Mer. Which living person do you most admire? President Zelenskyy. What is the trait you most deplore in others? Cruelty. I don’t see the point. What is your greatest fear? Losing one of my children, as there is no greater loss. What is your favorite journey? To…

IN THE EARLY 1980s, Vanity Fair, after a 47-year hiatus, was planning to relaunch. To help fill the pages, art director Bea Feitler turned to a trusted protégé: a 26-year-old photographer with a hungry eye and a devilish grin. His name was Jonathan Becker. Recently he’d been driving a cab. To scrape by, he’d relied on free dinners from his pal Elaine Kaufman, proprietor of the legendary Upper East Side boîte Elaine’s. Even so, Feitler saw promise in “the kid,” as she called him. And in 1983, when VF took flight, Becker was on board. His beat became New York’s corridors of power, its literary circles, its socialites and swans. Before long he’d be jetting off to Buenos Aires and Cap d’Antibes, applying the wisdom he’d gleaned from mentors like…

DALLAS, 1982. A young woman with ample ambition gave a prophetic valediction to her graduating class at Ursuline Academy. “If you are successful, it is because somewhere, sometime, someone gave you a life or an idea that started you in the right direction. Remember, also, that you are indebted to life until you help some less fortunate person, just as you were helped.” There’s something to be said for beginning with an ending—closed door, open window, as they say. The first time I meet this young woman, now the philanthropist Melinda French Gates, in a studio high above Manhattan’s financial district, she’s barreling toward the end of her fifth decade. She’s also three years out from her divorce from Bill Gates amid a pandemic in which their foundation became the…

LOCATION San Francisco PHILANTHROPIES Good Ventures, Open Philanthropy MISSION Improve the lives of as many people as possible by helping humanity thrive In Cari Tuna’s assessment, the issues governments and companies aren’t paying enough attention to are an opening for impact. “Philanthropy, at its best, identifies society’s blind spots,” Tuna says. Originally a San Francisco–based Wall Street Journal reporter, she left the paper in 2011 to start Good Ventures, approaching her first year much like a reporter would: “I talked to hundreds of people across philanthropy, nonprofits, government, science, academia, trying to learn about the landscape.” “You can really see how her experience as a journalist has informed her approach,” French Gates says of Tuna. “She’s rigorous about looking at the data and figuring out how to be as effective…

LOCATION US, Nigeria PHILANTHROPIES Purple Hibiscus Trust Workshop MISSION Foster and support African literary voices throughout the continent “It feels a little strange to use that word, philanthropy,” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie says. The Nigerian writer, known for both her written works—like Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists—and public speaking, views her work more as a duty than anything else. “I think that success is not necessarily the natural consequence of talent,” she says. “There are many talented people who just don’t have opportunities to become successful, and so to be successful, I think, brings a kind of responsibility.” Adichie does writing workshops and teaches writing to open doors for talent—particularly African talent. “Chimamanda is truly a testament to the power of women telling their stories,” French Gates says. “By…

AND THE ROOTS OF RHYTHM REMAIN Producer Joe Boyd (Nick Drake, R.E.M.) follows roving threads of sound—brass in Istanbul, Cuban Jam Sessions, Congolese rumba—and the artists they influenced, from Bob Marley to David Byrne. (Ze Books) ABORTION Since the fall of Roe, Jessica Valenti has tracked the state of reproductive rights from local bans to ballot measures; ahead of a pivotal election, she lays out the landscape, presenting a cogent case that bodily autonomy wins votes. (Crown) AN IMAGE OF MY NAME ENTERS AMERICA From the expansive mind of novelist, poet, and critic Lucy Ives, stylish, sweeping essays that consider the lure of period rooms, Alanis Morissette, Heidegger, and more. (Graywolf) NO ROAD LEADING BACK VF contributor Chris Heath traces the harrowing accounts of 12 Jewish prisoners who escaped the…

LOCATION UK, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Uganda PHILANTHROPIES Higherlife Foundation, Delta Philanthropies, Masana wa Afrika MISSION Support from education to disaster readiness “Physically, spiritually, mentally, I’m part of these communities,” says Tsitsi Masiyiwa, who is originally from Zimbabwe. Masiyiwa cofounded Higherlife Foundation with her husband, Strive, in 1996. Her ethos: Go where the people are. “Listen to their stories and cocreate solutions together.” Her efforts were initially spurred by Zimbabwe’s HIV/AIDS crisis. “We did not wake up with money and say, ‘We are going into philanthropy.’ It had nothing to do with money. It was a burden and a cause.” French Gates met Masiyiwa nearly a decade ago. “To see her over the years,” French Gates says, “how she’s doing her work, I’m so impressed with her and how she’s gone about it.” Masiyiwa’s…

LOCATION San Francisco and Los Altos, California PHILANTHROPIES Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, Anne Wojcicki Foundation MISSION Celebrate and advance knowledge of scientific achievements “We can almost look at philanthropy like starting a company,” Anne Wojcicki says. “I can start projects that are of great interest and I can try to shift society.” The 23andMe CEO cofounded and sits on the board (alongside Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, and Yuri and Julia Milner) of the Breakthrough Prize, an annual award for which laureates each receive $3 million—more than twice the purse of the Nobel Prize. “We should reward people for, ‘You did something amazing recently.’” Wojcicki’s aim to “make the science relatable” reflects French Gates’s admiration for the CEO: “I love how she talks about the example that…

I. A DIRTY BUSINESS ON A THURSDAY AFTERNOON IN MID-NOVEMBER 2023, AN ELDERLY MAN WAS WALKING THROUGH HAMBURG’S OHLSDORF CEMETERY, THE WORLD’S FOURTH-LARGEST GRAVEYARD, TO VISIT THE BURIAL PLACE OF HIS FAVORITE SOCCER PLAYER WHEN HE NOTICED SOMETHING VERY WRONG. SOMEONE HAD SPRAYED “NAZI KAPITAL” (“NAZI FORTUNE”) ON THE KUEHNE FAMILY’S TOMBSTONE, IN RED AND BLACK, WHILE THE CRYPTIC TERM “M-AKTION” WAS TAGGED ON ALFRED KUEHNE’S TOMBSTONE. These weren’t just any family tombs: The Kuehne dynasty is industrial royalty in Germany. Klaus-Michael Kuehne, the only child of Alfred and Mercedes Kuehne, is the country’s wealthiest person, with a fortune estimated at $44 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The 87-year-old billionaire owes his fortune to Kuehne + Nagel, the world’s largest freight forwarder, founded by Kuehne’s grandfather and Friedrich…

THE FIRST THING director Jason Reitman wants people to know about Saturday Night is that it may be about funny people—writers and performers who unquestionably redefined comedy—but it’s not intended to be a laugh riot. The movie plays out in real time over the course of about 90 minutes, and there are certainly uproarious moments, but even more tense and fraught ones. The story starts at 30 Rockefeller Center at 10 p.m. on October 11, 1975, and culminates with the first-ever broadcast of Saturday Night Live. What unfolds is a ticking-clock suspense movie. “It’s a thriller-comedy, if you can call that a genre,” Reitman says of the film, which arrives in theaters on October 11. “I always describe this movie as a shuttle launch, and the question was, ‘Would they…