Vogue February 2018

Two equally gorgeous cover stars grace our February issue: Serena Williams and her three-month-old daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. Writer Rob Haskell went to visit mother, daughter, and father—tech entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian—at home in Florida and found Serena to be as honest as ever. While she is an unbelievably gifted sportswoman, her athletic prowess has always been amplified by her openness about life’s ups and downs—and her awareness that the most joyous occasions can sometimes bring both. Not long after giving birth, Serena was to suffer six days of horrific health difficulties, and she was entirely willing to be frank about them to Rob. I’m happy to say that she has clearly fully recovered. I was a guest at Serena and Alexis’s wedding a couple of months ago, and it…

In seventh grade, it was difficult to speak. I wore floral skirts with suspenders and ate in the carpeted vestibule outside the teacher’s lounge, huddled in a small group of girls with whom I felt marginally less terrified than I did with everyone else. “Why are you so quiet?” one of the more popular girls—which is to say, all of the other girls—would sometimes ask. That word, quiet, shadowed my every move. It seemed to describe the limits of my identity. I got good grades in every subject but PE, where my teacher’s reports were brutal, citing my failure to manifest basic coordination. I was picked last, or nearly last, for every team, a ritual humiliation that seemed like little more than confirmation of what I already knew: that I…

If barrettes were once the stuff of prim schoolgirls and one moody Margot Tenenbaum, the spring runways put the classic accessory on the fast track to cool. Dolce & Gabbana tucked playing card–embellished combs above each ear for a winning pair; at Versace, the megawatt cast of supers wore gilded clips adorned with the house’s signature medallion. “It introduces an element of excitement into the hair,” says James Pecis, who secured the pearl-pinned waves at Simone Rocha with the help of Oribe’s texturizing Swept Up powder. The key to a modern pileup: placement that skirts perfection. Adds the hairstylist reassuringly, “They’re more unique when they’re just a little bit off.”…

Fashion’s floral fixation is age-old. Gabrielle Chanel was besotted with the pure-white camellia; designer Paul Poiret carried out a long-term love affair with the rose. So when the farm-to-florist online delivery service UrbanStems teamed up with Vogue, it was an organic fit. Inaugurating the yearlong collaboration are three bouquets as unique as their creators: Accessories Director Selby Drummond laced hers with sprigs of dried lavender, Creative Digital Director Sally Singer accented blush ranunculi with an unexpected succulent, and Director of Vogue Runway Nicole Phelps dressed up filler favorite Queen Anne’s lace.…

The line between fame and infamy keeps getting fainter. You find a perfect example in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, the absorbing follow-up to the Emmy-winning smash The People v. O.J. Simpson. It begins on the sunlit 1997 morning when Versace (Edgar Ramírez, superb), the Italian designer renowned for his flamboyant warmth, is gunned down by gay gigolo and wannabe celeb Andrew Cunanan (Glee’s Darren Criss) outside the fashion icon’s Mediterranean-style villa in Miami Beach. To tease out this murder’s kaleidoscopic significance, the show leapfrogs from the deadly path the California-born killer earlier cut across America to the battle between Versace’s sister, Donatella (a carefully modulated Penélope Cruz), and his longtime companion, Antonio D’Amico, vulnerably played by Ricky Martin: They both loved Gianni but can’t stand each…

If anywhere can be seen as a bellwether of modern living circa early 2018, it’s California. To the north, Silicon Valley defines the world’s technological frontier, while in the south, Hollywood still dominates pop culture. Along the state’s coasts and over its hills, meanwhile, there hums the vibrant sense of countryside harmony—from Runyon Canyon hikes in L.A. to weekending in Big Sur yurts, Californians seem to retain this nature-centric knack for community, along with a healthy equilibrium between being plugged in and getting outside and off the grid. A new exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, “Designed in California,” underscores this enviable way of life by tracing the state’s creativity from the mid-century to now. As the show’s curator, Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, says, “California is attractive because…