Vogue June 2019

THIS MONTH we profile Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, one of the nineteen (as I write this) hopefuls for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president. It’s a field that includes newer faces like Buttigieg’s, party stalwarts, and—especially heartening to me—a historic number of brilliant women who are united only by their gender; each encompasses extremely different points of view. Mayor Pete is just one of the many candidates we will speak with as we head toward next year’s election—because in our current, ever-shifting landscape, it’s anyone’s guess as to who will finally secure the Democratic nomination. At a time when it’s anything but business as usual in politics, that makes this unfolding story particularly fascinating to cover. Writer Nathan Heller spent time visiting Buttigieg at home, meeting his…

It was an early-summer day in Paris, and I was due to meet my boyfriend Stéphane’s two children for the first time. He and I had been a couple for only a few months, so the plan was casual—Oranginas with his son, Zacharie, then nine, and daughter, Irène, seven and a half, at a café near Stéphane’s apartment in Belleville. Afterward, we’d have dumplings in a Chinese dive they all loved. I rented a bike, and though I knew the route between Stéphane’s apartment and mine better than any other in Paris, I immediately got lost and used up our apéritif time pumping up and down the wrong hills. When I finally found the restaurant and pushed the jingling front door open, I was sweaty and ruffled. And then came…

At some point in the future, when people look back on the career of Himesh Patel, they will probably describe the role of Jack Malik, the unlikely hero at the center of Danny Boyle’s new rom-com Yesterday, as his breakthrough. Really, though, Patel’s debut came in 2001, when he was eleven and the lead of his school play, a parody titled This Is Your Life, Santa Claus. “In what was at the time quite a diverse piece of casting,” the 28-year-old recalls, “I played the host, Michael Aspel”—a 68-year-old white man—“and the teacher told my parents, ‘He’s actually quite good.’” Acting school ensued, and at sixteen, Patel landed a regular spot on EastEnders, the long-running BBC soap opera, playing the part of Tamwar Masood, the son of a postmaster and…

Ask Sam Cheow why he thinks essential oils are on everyone’s lips (OK, pulse points) these days, and he’ll tell you it has to do with two trends colliding: the desire to foster well-being from the inside out—facial calisthenics! Raw diets!—and a burgeoning curiosity about how nontraditional notions, and unconventional products, may help you sleep better, or cheer you up, or calm you down. “It is about self-care, self-love, self-respect, and self-worth,” says Cheow, the former L’Oréal exec behind Necessary Luxury, a seasonal collection of purposeful, limited-edition oil blends and so-called Mindset Mists. It’s just one of the aromatherapy lines wafting their way into the mainstream. If you need proof that these demi- or fully bespoke blends have reached a new level of respectability, you have only to visit two…

EDINBURGH “Body Beautiful: Diversity on the Catwalk” (Opens May 23) As fashion begins to reflect a more inclusive idea of beauty, the National Museum of Scotland offers a timely look at how labels like Jean Paul Gaultier and Gypsy Sport have embraced broad spectrums of race, age, physical ability, gender and sexuality, and size. Beyond capturing a cultural shift, the show—which features everything from Halima Aden’s hijab on the fall 2017 Max Mara runway to a Burberry trench custom-made for the activist Sinéad Burke—considers both the steady dismantling of old standards and the work that still needs to be done. CALAIS “Olivier Theyskens: In Praesentia” (Opens June 15) Coinciding with its tenth anniversary, the Museum of Lace and Fashion in northern France presents this intriguing study of Theyskens’s 20-plus-year career,…

In college, Emily was the most popular female name in my incoming class, so to differentiate from “hippie Emily,” “pink-hair Emily,” and “nose-pierce Emily,” my classmates deemed me “long-hair Emily.” Luckily, the nickname didn’t stick. But my hair remains the same, nearly two decades later: dangling just near my waist, anchored by a heavy fringe. I’ve never thought about changing it—mostly because caring for it requires so little effort: Wash, dry, maybe a braid or a high ponytail. Nineties supermodel Liisa Winkler, who has had hip-grazing, beachy waves her entire life (minus a traumatic, Samsonesque chop for a 2001 cover of Italian Vogue, she recalls with a shudder), agrees that it’s the “ease of maintenance” that keeps her from going short. “My mom trims it once in a while; that’s…