Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2020 i Vogue

“I’ve aged ten years in three days,” Kelly Oxford lamented on Twitter back in March, after COVID-19 began its pernicious spread. The best-selling author and screenwriter was reflecting on the collective anxiety, fear, and pervasive sadness that befell all of us once the global pandemic began. But the idea of looking in the mirror to see an unrecognizable face—one that’s somehow older, creased, slack, and inflamed—specifically struck a chord. As I’ve become consumed by worry, my skin has relentlessly reflected the jangling nerves beneath. Dry patches and redness have bloomed all over, making me thankful for the mercy of Zoom’s blurry screen. I am not alone. A University of Chicago COVID Impact Survey from May found that roughly two-thirds of Americans had strong negative emotions at least once during the…

DANCE At the height of the Second World War, Beryl Grey—who would become the first English ballerina invited to perform at the Soviet-run Bolshoi Ballet—was dancing in Swan Lake at a London theater when a V2 bomb exploded nearby; the blast coincided with a particularly dramatic moment in Stravinsky’s score, and Dame Beryl, as she later reported, “carried on dancing.” Ballet, to put it succinctly, has a history of resilience. This spring and summer, with live and live-streamed ballets off the table, most companies transplanted their performances into the virtual space. New York City Ballet filled six weeks of programming with footage that was originally meant for the company’s eyes only. “They were supposed to be cut and snipped and edited for marketing purposes,” explains Wendy Whelan, associate artistic director.…

Table of contents: 4: On Biles: Chiffon dress, $7,760; net-a-porter.com. Tailor, Kristie Shackelford. Cover look: 4: Cashmere bodysuit, $1,520; bottegaveneta.com. Tailor, Kristie Shackelford. GAME CHANGER 40–41: Crop top ($1,240), shorts ($1,070), and belt ($480); maison-alaia.com. Hermès belt, $960; hermes.com. 42–43: On Biles: Chiffon dress, $7,760; net-a-porter.com. 44–45: Dress and belt, priced upon request; (800) 929-DIOR. 48–49: Embroidered dress, $28,000; marcjacobs.com. In this story: Tailor, Kristie Shackelford. HEAD OVER HEELS 54: On Aboah: Taffeta dress, $5,724; also at Dover Street Market New York, NYC. Gaspar Gloves satin gloves, $65; gaspargloves.com. On Reynolds: Lace–and–cotton poplin dress, price upon request; Simone Rocha, NYC. On Imrie: Linen tropical hussar uniform, price upon request. 55: On Archer: Silk pongee dress, $3,250; also at net-a-porter.com. Bentley & Skinner pearl necklace, $18,447; bentley-skinner.co.uk. On Nova: Top ($1,900)…

FASHION “Blame it all on Jane Birkin,” I mumble sheepishly into my laptop. On the other end of the Zoom from my London lockdown is Vogue’s resident closet-cleansing guru, Liana Satenstein—otherwise known as the Schmatta Shrink—in New York, and she seems aghast by my stash of a dozen or so wicker basket bags. Among them is a reminder of that escape to Deià; the wedding in Morocco; a modern-classic Loewe—oh, and a versatile, hand-woven Brother Vellies clutch, for the past three summers my loyal walker to any event. “They’re all quite different bags for life,” I hear myself saying. “And I do wear them all year round.” “Kill your darlings,” Satenstein urges. A recalibration of our homes, and the abundance in them, has been ushered in during isolation. For some,…

BOOKS Kevin Kwan’s latest, Sex and Vanity (Doubleday)—an update on ARoom With a View—unfolds with his signature winking wit about the .001 percent. This time, the Crazy Rich Asians author starts in sun-soaked Capri, where a sweetly naive Brown undergrad attends the gilded nuptials of her ultra-glam childhood babysitter. Jetting from the Bay of Naples to the canyons of Fifth Avenue, the book is a voyeuristic cruise into the playgrounds of the überrich. Kwan’s books don’t go deep, but that’s hardly the point. They skate along the glittering surface, allowing their readers to bask in the reflected glow. Edie, the narrator of Raven Leilani’s Luster (FSG), is a disaffected, urban-dwelling 20-something whiling away her desk-job hours by engaging in inappropriate flirtations. An online crush turns into a full-on affair with…

BEAUTY How long does it take to make or break a habit? A decade ago Phillippa Lally, Ph.D., a researcher at University College London, led a major study showing that people need, on average, 66 days to change their ways. I was reminded of this 60-ish days into my own pandemic-induced seclusion, after fleeing my small apartment in Manhattan to join friends at their home in upstate New York. As the novelty of sheltering in place wore off (I, too, grew sick of baking and binge-watching) and I adapted to my newly rural lifestyle, I became preoccupied with the question of who, exactly, I would be if and when I returned to my “normal” life—and beyond that what, exactly, I’d look like. After months of no gyms, no manicures, no…

FASHION George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police officers sparked outrage and protests across America that have expanded around the globe. Galvanized by an egregious violation of civil rights laws, citizens—shaken out of months of quarantine dormancy—took to the streets in all 50 states to demand justice. Their efforts were met with police brutality, inflammatory tweets from President Trump, and thousands of arrests. There is simply no arguing that the events mark an inflection point. Many Black designers and business leaders have been vocal about ending racial injustice. Pyer Moss’s Kerby Jean-Raymond, Balmain’s Olivier Rousteing, Telfar Clemens, and Rihanna have all taken to social media or released statements in solidarity with protesters, with Rihanna briefly suspending sales at all three of her fashion and beauty brands. Jide Zeitlin,…

DESIGN Oh, the places you can’t go—for now. In the meantime, objects evocative of holidays not taken will have to suffice. More specifically, this majolica vase from Studio Le Nid—traditional ceramists based out of Paternò, Sicily—will transport you to Southern Italy with its refined rusticity. Handcrafted from Simeto River clay, the vessel features a floral repeat that, according to Studio Le Nid’s Vincenzo Messina, “captures the essential lines and shapes of the rose with as few elements possible.” Some things in life are best kept simple. Head east via Tamam, the New York City–and Istanbul-based home-goods purveyor of contemporary and antique tablewares rooted in Eastern European culture. This royal-blue-colored dish, painted in the late 19th century by the Kuznetsov porcelain factory in Russia, was meant to be exported to Uzbekistan.…

I knew, 20 minutes into my first conversation with the man who became my fiancé, that we would be married one day. Granted, I had a bad habit of getting myself mentally engaged. It’s not a hard thing to do. You take a person who’s caught your eye and flash forward 30 or 40 years; if you like what you see, mazel tov. We were out to coffee, and J, an earnest, intelligent writer in square-framed glasses, was telling me about the three years he had spent living in Madrid. I therefore saw myself in Spain, in a broad-brimmed hat and loose cotton trousers that looked slouchy-sexy but not slouchy-schlumpy on my 50- or 65-year-old body. I didn’t speak Spanish, but I could learn. We would adventure across the globe…