Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2015 i Vogue

Living WELL Extraordinary homes (and the latest finds to add to yours). Entertaining advice from Vogue’s most trusted experts. Exactly where to be jetting and eating now. And—from bouquets to bands—all things wedding. Vogue.com’s new Living coverage has it all. the Flower CROWN —PAST AND PRESENT These popular decorative headpieces actually have very deep roots, and despite detractors, the accessory shows no signs of fading from favor. We trace its history from ancient times to the red carpet.…

IMOGEN Waterhouse “Acting certainly helps modeling, in my mind, since it’s all about confidence.” THE “STEAL OF THE MONTH” SUBJECT ON HER TWIN CAREERS (PAGE 188) MICHAEL B. Jordan You’re getting me right in the middle of a creative session,” Michael B. Jordan says one afternoon in June. “I’m developing this graphic novel right now, but I can’t say too much about it.” Fitting, then, that the 28-year-old is about to experience his first bona fide movie-star moment with the premiere of Fantastic Four—he plays the Human Torch alongside costars Kate Mara, Miles Teller, and Jamie Bell (and he also appears in Tabitha Simmons’s “Heart & Soul,” page 150). And unlike other actors who might wear their capes begrudgingly, Jordan is a genuine comic-book nerd. Growing up in New Jersey,…

A lex Sharp first met Wallis Currie-Wood at their final audition for the Juilliard School of Drama. He, from Devon, England, and heartbroken over his rejection from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and she, from Austin, Texas, and then just eighteen years old, each read monologues by Shakespeare— and both eventually accepted invitations to attend the storied arts academy. Five years on, the couple’s collective résumé reads a bit differently. In June, Sharp won a Tony for his precise and achingly poignant lead performance in Marianne Elliott’s Broadway transfer of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. (In his Tony-acceptance speech, Sharp answered the question that ends Simon Stephens’s script with heartening sincerity: “ ‘Does that mean I can do anything?’ Yes, it does,” he said.) Currie-Wood,…

In the early 1960s, at the height of the scandalous romance between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, the Vatican newspaper printed an open letter taking Taylor to task for “erotic vagrancy.” Would that august body have been even more incensed to learn that just on the other side of the Tiber, the couple in question were spending their downtime from the set of Cleopatra sneaking through a discreet back entrance of a certain jewelry shop? “The only word Elizabeth knows in Italian is Bulgari,” Burton once quipped. Maybe so, but it was an abbreviated language that she—and other international luminaries from Candice Bergen to Audrey Hepburn to Princess Grace—spoke, and in some cases still speak, fluently. This fall the house is flaunting its own passionate affair at its New York…

Manolo Blahnik has developed a marvelous habit when it comes to storytelling, often pinching his voice into a kind of joyous squeak to highlight the drama: “She is divine” or, describing a long-ago visit to the Oyster Bay home of photographer Horst P. Horst, “It was absolutely freezing—and, can you believe it, I found him swimming outside completely in the nude!” It’s a cue to the tumultuous joie de vivre of the Manolo universe, which, in all of its glamour and “madness” (Blahnik’s word), is now immortalized in a new monograph, Manolo Blahník: Fleeting Gestures and Obsessions (Rizzoli New York). Each section of the book blends inspirations—a person, like Blahnik’s late confidante Anna Piaggi, or a place, like El Caribe—with photographs of shoe designs they influenced, many of them shot…

Today, the word bouquet calls to mind bridal confections more visual than olfactory, but rewind a few centuries, to the Georgian and Victorian eras, and the nosegay—as the handheld floral sprays were charmingly known—was the de rigueur accessory for fashionable ladies (and quite a few gentlemen). After all, modern hygiene was still far in the distance, and sweetsmelling flowers, often jauntily pinned to a bodice or waistcoat, offered a twist on wearable perfume. No one understands the allure of heady peonies or lilies of the valley better than those who spend their days weaving them into elaborate displays—even though, as Los Angeles florist Eric Buterbaugh explains, “it’s really hard to get any fragrant flowers anymore. They’ve bred the scent out of so many things.” No matter: He and a handful…

When I was young,” says Bel Powley, now an antique 23, “there weren’t any teenage girls I could relate to in film. They were all put in boxes: the virginal good girl, the really sarcastic asexual one. I wanted to do something that represented how I felt then.” This month’s The Diary of a Teenage Girl promises to launch the charismatic Powley just as An Education did Carey Mulligan. Minnie is a brainy, awkward fifteen-year-old in seventies San Francisco who initiates an affair with the 35-year-old boyfriend (Alexander Skarsgård) of her feckless mother (Kristen Wiig). It’s an unsettling role, but Powley pulls us into its heady mix of confusion and libido. “Bel has this face you want to look at,” says director Marielle Heller. “There’s always something fascinating happening beneath…

Jesse had dark pink cheeks and on cold days wore a brown skullcap. He wasn’t a crush or an idol—I now realize I don’t even know how to spell his name. I never saw it written, and when I last saw him, I was twelve and didn’t think of such things. Jesse stood on a dim stretch of Central Avenue in White Plains, New York, selling perfect and peppery hot dogs. My father visited regularly and brought me along on Saturdays—in my favorite pinafore and patent leather shoes—on our drive home to Westchester from concerts at Carnegie Hall. Jesse and my father would exchange pleasantries. Jesse would hand us three hot dogs wrapped in thin napkins, steam rising from them, and we would bend over our lunches, careful to keep…

After we’d been dating about three weeks, Ian told me what he really did over breakfast at a restaurant on Broadway and Seventysecond Street. We made an odd pair: a distinguished-looking 42-year-old man in a business suit and a 20-something in jeans and a T-shirt. I had been up writing all night and was so desperate for coffee that my fingers were trembling. Ian reached across the table for my hand. “I have to tell you something,” he said. “I’m not really a diplomat. I work for MI6.” I blinked. “What’s MI6?” He looked startled. “Well, you know . . . MI6.” “I just told you I don’t know what that is,” I said. “Like James Bond,” he said. I didn’t know how to respond. I didn’t know much about…

When in Rome. . . . If ever there were a familiar expression to describe letting loose, that would be it. No surprise, then, that my friends jewelry designer Sabine Ghanem and financier Joseph Getty chose the city for their wedding extravaganza. Well, there was also the fact that Joseph’s mother, Domitilla, was raised in Italy—and is sufficiently Italian that she even has a pope stuck somewhere in her family tree (N.B.: the ultimate chic Roman reference). At their disposal for the party was the beautiful Castello Odescalchi in Palo Laziale on the seaside just outside the city. The approach to the fairy-tale castle was along an encircling stone wall where you could see, smell, and breathe in the ocean. Up a few stairs you passed into the wedding Spiegeltent—a…

This past March, the sartorial stars aligned at the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund’s Americans in Paris showroom to bring Baja East’s John Targon and Scott Studenberg under the same roof as modern-day milliner Gigi Burris. “I saw her walking through in one of her sensational hats, turned to John, and said, ‘We have to do something with Gigi,’ ” recalls Studenberg. Six months later, the trio is set to debut three made-to-order widebrimmed straw toppers. They’ve taken Gigi’s signature fedora (in natural, black, and a stripe of tropical hues) and added hand-finished trim sourced from antique Balinese ceremonial skirts or jungle-print techno jacquard from French fabric house Hurel (both cornerstones of the surf-luxe brand). Consider yourself covered for the sunny season and beyond— after all, as Targon puts it, “it’s always…

Once it was easy. There was a single trend or, OK, maybe two, on the runways, and a very limited makeup palette to accompany these unwavering fashion imperatives. You went out and bought the right outfits, slapped the right stuff on your face, and that was that—you were in style! But gradually, and then not so gradually, it all changed: A thousand flowers bloomed on catwalks. And as for your visage, well, depending on whether you were clad in flowing bohemian Chloé or Alexander Wang safety pins, you might dramatize yourself one day with a mere whisper of pale fire dancing precariously inside your eyes’ water line, and opt for full-on Amy Winehouse–worthy raccoons the next. If there is in fact one thread connecting the wildly disparate fantasias this season,…

Émigrée, fashion writer, diplomat’s wife, feminist icon: The Brazilian modernist Clarice Lispector lived many lives, all of which influenced her short fiction. Finally available in English, The Complete Stories (New Directions), edited by Benjamin Moser and translated by Katrina Dodson, is an ideal introduction to this “female Chekhov on the beaches of Guanabara.” Starting with “The Triumph,” published when she was nineteen, these darkly shimmering fragments not only challenge our sense of modernism but add up to an unusually complete record of a woman’s life. Holding a well-Windexed mirror close is Lucia Berlin, whose selected stories, A Manual for Cleaning Women (FSG), edited by Stephen Emerson and with an introduction by Lydia Davis, showcase a singular if unsung American voice. Berlin’s peripatetic childhood—Alaska, Chile—was followed by a roving adulthood in…

Cover look 52: Dress, $5,900; Marc Jacobs stores. Manicure, AnitaManicure. Editor’s letter 68: On Kidman: Dress, $15,000; Bergdorf Goodman, NYC. Ippolita earrings, $275; ippolita.com. Contributors 74: On Jordan: three-piece tuxedo, shirt, and bow tie, priced upon request; (212) 897-9653 for information. On Waterhouse: Dress, $120; topshop.com. Tights, $74; herroom.com. View 102: Sweater ($905) and shorts ($545); Isabel Marant, L.A. 104: Turtleneck ($275) and pants ($430); Sandro stores. 18K-gold watch, $15,000; David Yurman, NYC. 106: Dress, $1,600; Ikram, Chicago. On Studenberg: Baja East top ($595) and beanie ($295); top at Ikram, Chicago; beanie at baja-east.com. On Targon: Baja East sweater ($1,595) and pants ($695); sweater at Bergdorf Goodman, NYC; pants at the Webster, Miami Beach. 108: Pants, $950; Carven, NYC. Martone Cycling Chelsea Bike, $1,100; martonecycling.com. Beauty 112: Dress ($6,200), top…

ENGLISH ROSE The cover photo of Carey Mulligan was mesmerizing, and the corresponding article [“Passion Player,” by Gaby Wood, photographed by Mikael Jansson, May] gave me just enough background on one of my favorite actors. I am happy to allow her to keep her private life private—it makes her more interesting as an actor, as it does Mulligan’s heroes Tilda Swinton and Kate Winslet. Barbara Sheltraw Saginaw, MI A PROCESS TO REMEMBER Thank you for the illuminating behind-the-scenes glimpse of Elisabeth TNT’s preparation for this year’s Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute gala [TNT, Flash, May]. Having waited with bated breath to see how the evening’s attendees would sartorially interpret “China: Through the Looking Glass,” I was fascinated to see how much planning and anticipatory excitement goes into the big night. Juliane…

Fashion insider Emmanuel Tomasini’s debut bag collection riffs on the sportif and speedy lines of the eighties power player’s favorite toy: the Porsche 911. “That car was such a part of my generation,” says Tomasini. “I wanted to capture the style of the time—but also the sense that now is a moment to return to the classics.” And though the shapes may be conservative by design, the sumptuous, cashmere-like suede—with go-faster stripes of sleek banded leather—races stylishly ahead. The linear clutch summons the decadent, retro-chic glamour of Roxy Music, or late nights on the dance floor at Area; lipstick-red or French-navy leather, meanwhile, translates well into immaculate shoulder purses replete with raised 3-D squares and gold link chains. Tomasini is revving up his bags, as are many other designers this…

You’re one of those resourceful English girls,” said my colleague over a recent Fashion Week repast in Café de Flore. (I had just steadied a wobbly table with an expedient twist of a show invitation.) “You can just tell by your shoes,” she added. My simple two-inch Jimmy Choo black suede pumps appeared, if not exactly resourceful, at least sensible among a sea of uptown trainers and stacked Saint Laurent sandals. They looked like shoes with a sense of purpose. Sometimes a change in what you wear comes over you as a necessity rather than a passing fancy (in my case, a broken toe led to the downsizing of my heels), but as the collections unfolded—Balenciaga, Chanel, Louis Vuitton—it quickly became clear to me that the low heel was on…

Sandal season got off to a slightly wobbly start when a recent report linked common nail-polish ingredients to health risks in salon workers. While a weekly manicurepedicure is far less likely to endanger customers, cosmetics companies are rolling out an array of products for those who want to limit their chemical exposure. Brands including Orly and Butter London offer “3-free” polishes, which contain no formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate, and toluene. High-level exposure to this so-called toxic trio of chemicals is tied to cancer and reproductive issues. Five-free polishes, such as those by Zoya, RGB, Londontown, and Priti NYC, eschew two additional substances: formaldehyde resin and camphor, both known skin irritants. JACAVA London upped the ante with a new line of 9-free polishes that eliminate all five of the above as well…

Languorous late summers in Europe frequently owe a debt to local wine, and this year promises to be no different, with two new spas offering a twist on terroir. In Portugal’s Douro Valley, Six Senses has opened a picturesque resort inside a nineteenth-century manor. Vineyard-focused treatments include the Complete Grape Rejuvenation—a head-to-toe service that entails gentle exfoliation using the pulped fruit and its nourishing seed oil, followed by a wine-soaked cloth wrap thought to stimulate cell renewal (sixsenses.com). Abadia Retuerta LeDomaine, a serene former monastery in northern Spain, has just added a skylit spa, cleverly built underground to preserve the wine-country vista; grapes turn up in a fragrant footbath as well as an invigorating body polish (ledomaine .es). Meanwhile, Caudalie—the French beauty line known for its grape-reliant skin care and…

Asheep painting a self-portrait. A digital robot at a keyboard, accompanied by a noisy drunk in a green shirt. A one-legged cow whose body is a human ear. A lobster and a clam, hunched over a computer. You never know what you’ll find in a painting by Michael Williams, whose soaring reputation puts him, at the age of 37, in the front rank of emerging American artists. Nor can you be sure what medium he’s using. Oil paint, acrylic, crayon, ink-jet digital printout, and airbrush can all appear in a single one of his layered, crowded, dizzyingly complex, simultaneously abstract and figurative, and wonderfully goofy pictures. They channel late Philip Guston, Albert Oehlen, Carroll Dunham, Peter Saul, and several other contemporary masters, but in essence, there’s nothing like them. “If…

The unique challenge Alexander Wang faces at Balenciaga is melding his own instinct for cool with the label’s aristo-chic legacy—and if these thrilling hybrid pumps for fall are any indication, it’s a task he’s handling with aplomb. Blending ballroom baubles (the pearland-crystal brooches are detachable) with see-through vinyl—Wang calls the shoes “X-ray classics”—they summon Balenciaga’s mid-century society dame’s tastes, but with the sartorial bravery of a new-era night owl. After all, what’s dash without a bit of daring?…