ELLE April 2014

THE ELLE MUST-DO CHECKLIST April 6 Kings, Khaleesi, swords—Game of Thrones returns! April 11–13, 18–20 Kiwi teen of the moment Lorde and a reunited OutKast play Coachella. April 25–May 4 Revelers flock to New Orleans Jazz Fest for Springsteen, Phish, and Public Enemy. Tuesday, April 1 RELATIVE TALES This deliciously dishy biography of the iconic family's not-so-simple story of success, The Hiltons, by J. Randy Taraborrelli, begins with patriarch Conrad's humble background and ends with Paris shouting to paparazzi, "You guys are hot!" Saturday, April 12 Happy 20TH birthday, Saoirse Ronan Tuesday, April 22 BACKSTAGE PASS Patti Smith urinates on the side of a stage, Yoko compares herself to Van Gogh—There Goes Gravity is filled with candid stories about the women (and men) who make the rock world go round,…

Upon fleeing the USSR as a young man, Max Studio founder Leon Max famously sold three heirloom Fabergé picture frames his mother had given him and used the proceeds to fund his new life. Tuesday, April 1 Embrace the underwear-as-outerwear trend—literally—with Xwim. The creatively spelled line of pattern-block bikinis and rash guards is the brainchild of Dierdre Roffoni, designer of Xirena, L.A.'s favorite too-cute-to-be-covered lingerie brand, beloved for its playful bricolage of materials. THE ELLE MUST-DO CHECKLIST Tuesday, April 1 For an ultraluxe take on traditional, check out Fabergé's Big Egg Hunt. There's no chocolate involved, but we doubt there will be many complaints about the giant eggs designed by the likes of Ralph Lauren and Jeff Koons popping up around NYC. Saturday, April 5 Italophiles and fashionistas alike won't…

GO AHEAD, ASK Whether you want to master between-seasons dressing or need a quick flatforms how-to, ELLE.com's new fashion editor, Danielle Prescod, has the solution to all your sartorial queries. To get her weekly fashion fix, bookmark ELLE.com/askdanielle "People ask me all the time what to wear because they are generally confused," Danielle Prescod says while deflecting yet another compliment on her black-and-white T.U.K. creepers. "Because I'm looking at stuff all day, it's easy for me to pinpoint what works." While she has some bona fides—including two years styling looks for luxury e-tailer Moda Operandi—ELLE.com's new fashion guru doesn't consider being fashionable an insiders-only sport. "I never insert myself into the equation. A look has to make sense for a woman's lifestyle, body shape, and job," she says. "But if…

Lifer Making the best of an untenable situation seems like a not-good-enough way to go through life, yet many women who both work and have children feel that's pretty much their only option. Writing about a thought-provoking new book called Overwhelmed, by Washington Post reporter Brigid Schulte, ELLE's Features Director, Laurie Abraham, brings a fresh perspective and needed insight into what's too often called the problem of "work-life balance." Abraham writes about the way the huge demands in women's lives have been underestimated by academics studying time use—did you know that if your car breaks down and you wait two hours for a tow, researchers count that time as "leisure"?—as well as how we all simultaneously glorify and lament our busyness. The classification of work and life as two distinct…

FUNNY GIRLS For our annual Women in TV Issue (February 2014), we celebrated four of the small screen's biggest stars—Zooey Deschanel, Mindy Kaling, Amy Poehler, and Allison Williams—each hilarious in her own right. While most readers loved the covers, Kaling's close-up provoked mixed reactions. Of the sultry shot, we can only agree with Kaling's former colleague Rainn Wilson (aka Dwight Schrute of The Office), who told E! News that she "looked great, and she looked beautiful, and it was a great cover." And it looks like Mindy thought so too: I love my @ELLEmagazine cover. It made me feel glamorous & cool. And if anyone wants to see more of my body, go on thirteen dates with me. —@mindykaling, via Twitter Damn! Amy Poehler rules! like a boss I tell…

For this month's Genius Issue, ELLE celebrates fashion, literature, and beauty virtuosos, including the strikingly intelligent, risk-taking Emma Watson. Here's how we corralled this English rose into becoming a Wild West siren for our cover. ELLE Creative Director Joe Zee: "[The look] was inspired by photographer Sam Haskins' Cowboy Kate pictures, but done in a more modern way." Assistant Fashion Editor Sarah Schussheim: "There were a lot of hats, different textures—leather, lace, 'denim' in the form of Balmain blue leather pants." Hairstylist Ken O'Rourke: "I prepped [her] hair with Oribe mousse to give it volume. And she kept the hairstyle to do our behind-the-scenes video after the shoot!" Video Director Marcel Wepper: "We talked about her favorite subjects in school—literature, English." Zee: "She's a cool girl, and she's always going…