Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2015 i ELLE

Lisbeth Salander continues to inflict her brand of punk-rock vengeance in The Girl in the Spider’s Web. Former crime journalist David Lagercrantz picks up where the late The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo author Stieg Larsson left off. September 1 September 4 Dedicate it to the one you love: Brooklyn band Soda Shop’s self-titled debut album blends tambourines, dreamy vocals, and ’50s nostalgia into swing- and slowdance-worthy tracks. September 10 The emotional extremes of artist Barnaby Furnas, whose work subversively mixes beauty with carnage, go on display at Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York. September 11 Actress Mélanie Laurent directs Breathe, a film about a friendship between two teen girls that involves intimacy, codependence, and obsession all at once September 13 At L.A.’s MOCA, artistic madman Matthew Barney premieres River…

September is always our biggest issue of the year, but 2015 marks something even more major: the magazine’s 30th anniversary. Of course, to fete this momentous occasion, we couldn’t have photographer Paola Kudacki shoot just one cover. She captured four, all featuring the extremely elegant and prodigiously talented actress Keira Knightley. These covers highlight the magazine’s dual French and American heritage, as well as the vital role that beauty and accessories play in our fashion identity. They also represent the look of the ELLE woman now: “gorgeous skin, strong body, big accessories, big, beachy hair, and pops of color,” says ELLE Fashion Director Samira Nasr, who styled the shoot, which just so happened to be shot at a tenth-century Benedictine abbey in Avignon, France. On set, Knightley, dressed in looks…

June 2008 “With the release of Good Girl Gone Bad, the island teen dream was gone. In her place we found a sex symbol rocking her punkish crop and studded Louboutins.” July 2010 “Her version of rock ’n’ roll badass is as much couture as it is street: She’s that rare pop star who has seamlessly crossed over to high fashion.” May 2012 “Everything I do, I do because I wantto. Sometimes I’ll wear something and think, I’m going to get so much flak for this tomorrow, but if I want to wear it, I will.” December 2014 “If she’s in the mood to be a badassor] in the mood to be supersweet..., she’ll be that way,” designer Adam Selman says. “She is who she is and she’s not apologizing…

Ancient Romans believed that signet rings should represent one’s personality. General Pompey, who famously led a campaign to rid the Mediterranean of pirates in 66 b.c. and later quashed a slave rebellion led by Spartacus, had a lion bearing a sword on his—a symbol of bravery and valor. In contrast, most western Europeans’ rings bore the family crest, and came in handy for stamping wax seals onto handwritten letters. Now cable king David Yurman offers up an irreverent and nightclub-friendly take on the time-honored classic. The Signature Pinky Ring collection of pavé diamond sparklers has a secret: When placed under black light, they reveal either a smiley face, a heart, or a star—a brilliant take on tradition for the emoji generation. What’s your sign?…

THOMAS TAIT The 2014 LVMH prize winner’s bright future was writ large for fall with roomy power tailoring (jumbo-collared taffeta blouses, floor-scraping trousers) that had just a whiff of eccentricity—tufts of fur peeking out of armholes, anyone? DION LEE As Miranda Kerr and Phoebe Tonkin can tell you, no one cuts a cocktail dress with the intellectual focus of this boy from Oz. His red-carpet numbers play with gravity to create drape via luxe fabrics slashed into ribbons. SIMONE ROCHA The tawdry and pedestrian (Perspex heels, marabou, pearls) become avant-garde must-haves (clear-soled brogues! fuzzy shower slides! pearltrimmed socks!) when interpreted by this 2014 British Fashion Council New Establishment Award winner TOME Ryan Lobo and Ramon Martin’s perfect shirts and shirtdresses— inspired by strong, creative women such as Georgia O’Keeffe and…

In a sense, the editors of ELLE operate like a sports team: We’re always working toward the same goal, which in our case is to curate the clothes and accessories that will bring joy (and function and a bit of fantasy) to your lives—and ours. For this epic anniversary issue, in addition to our annual report of fall’s musthaves, we look back at fashion that has inspired generations of ELLE women. And we kick it all off with this battle cry of a jersey dress by Tommy Hilfiger, also celebrating three decades in business. So enough pep talk, team—time to lace up and get shopping!…

When Jess Glynne’s Grammy—won with Clean Bandit for Best Dance Recording for last summer’s big-beat hit “Rather Be”—finally arrived at her London apartment, she immediately filled it with champagne and drank straight from the gramophone. Appropriately, her first solo album, I Cry When I Laugh, out this month, is filled with enough soul-pop effervescence to give us that bubbly, head-rush feeling she must have gotten from her big gulp. Growing up in North London, the daughter of an A&R coordinator mom and a jazzophile dad, Glynne skipped university to work behind the scenes in the music industry as a manager’s assistant. The goal, she says, was to “learn how not to do it,” and when she was ready to break out on her own as an artist, a producer gave…

1WE NEVER ASKED FOR WINGS VANESSA DIFFENBAUGH (BALLANTINE) In this elegantly composed novel, we follow Letty, a young single mother with a feisty six-year-old daughter and a precocious teenage son, as she attempts to build a consistent life after her hands-on parents leave the San Francisco Bay Area for their native Mexico. Readers rooted for the young family and delighted in what one calls the “subtle parallels between migratory birds, Letty’s wayward journey, and the challenges of both undocumented and legal immigrants who live on the fringes of society.” 2 THE GIRL WHO SLEPT WITH GOD VAL BRELINSKI (VIKING) It’s 1970 in Arco, Idaho, and Grace, an Evangelical Christian teen, has returned home pregnant after a mission trip to Mexico. As Grace, who believes the pregnancy to be a divine…

WE NEED THE GUYS AT WORK Before Kim Elsesser was a research scholar at UCLA, teaching classes on gender and writing Sex and the Office: Women, Men, and the Sex Partition That’s Dividing the Workplace (Taylor Trade), she was the number two in a group developing quantitative strategies at Morgan Stanley. She writes that she faced the usual crap: “Did I have the balls to do that trade? Was my dick big enough? Or more frequently, I needed to get some balls.” But Elsesser’s need to grow a pair paled in comparison to a more insidious problem: the obstacles to “cross-sex friendships” created by the heightened awareness of sexual-harassment laws. “I watched the head of my group play poker with his direct report”—the pretty, blond Elsesser was not invited—“and come…

FRANCE In a country known for laissez-faire beauty, the fact that “Is it okay not to comb your hair?” turns up as a frequent query isn’t entirely startling. (Our answer: Toss that comb, unless snarls are causing hair breakage.) TOP QUESTION: “WHEN DOES MAKEUP EXPIRE?” European cosmetic guidelines make it easy: Products sold there (and many Euro-made concoctions that are distributed in the U.S.) are required to list on the label how long the formula will stay fresh after opening. For products that lack that handy guideline, Kelly Reynolds, PhD, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona’s Zuckerman College of Public Health, recommends playing it extra safe with anything that goes on or around the eye: Toss mascara, liquid eyeliners, and concealers after three months. “The eye has very few…

MIU MIU BY MIU MIU Even the flacon for Miu Miu’s long-awaited first eau de parfum embodies the scent’s girly-with-atwist vibe: Its opaque blue color, inspired by “the optimism of early ’60s cinema,” is playfully offset with a transparent red cap resembling a lollipop. The fragrance spotlights lily of the valley, the “beautiful and joyful” flower that Miuccia Prada celebrated in the brand’s fall 2011 collection. Because the bloom itself cannot be distilled, jasmine and rose were combined with synthetic green notes to create an abstract lily-of-the-valley effect, the sophistication of which is “roughened up” with an unexpected extract of patchouli. ALAÏA BY AZZEDINE ALAÏA Inspired by his childhood in Tunisia, where his grandmother would splash buckets of cool water onto sunbaked walls to lower the temperature, designer Azzedine Alaïa…

Becoming the leader of the free world takes more than ambition (yes, glorious, admirable, fanfuckingtastic female ambition). It takes making mistakes and absorbing defeat. It takes hard work and happy (or not so) accidents. And it takes sincere effort to make the world a better place, at least some of the time. Herewith, the achievements, tactical maneuvers, gender jujitsu, and often bizarre circumstances that have coalesced to put Hillary Clinton first in line to become the nation’s 45th president. 1967 BUTTERFLY EFFECT: “Since Xmas vacation, I’ve gone through three and a half metamorphoses and am beginning to feel as though there is a smorgasbord of personalities spread before me,” 20-year-old Hillary Rodham writes to a friend in 1967. Her political critics would later decry her changes of mind as flipflopping.…

Whenever Keira Knightley is talking, she does so with the urgency of having just witnessed a robbery attempt. No matter the topic, you can feel her need to say what she needs to say concisely and clearly, in a rush of words wrapped and ribboned in a thick Middlesex English accent. Everything sounds all very exciting. It’s a genetic trait—the D in her DNA being drama. Two years married to the dapper indie rocker James Righton, with whom she has a new baby anointed Edie, the actress celebrated her thirtieth birthday in March, the events of which she’s regaling us with uninterruptable speed: “I was heavily pregnant, I couldn’t drink—what is the point of having a thirtieth birthday if I couldn’t get phenomenally drunk? But my husband took over, arranged…

The word iconic is thrown around so often these days it’s practically lost all meaning. And then there’s Robert De Niro. He’s a seven-time Oscar nominee and twotime winner (Best Supporting Actor for The Godfather: Part II; Best Actor for Raging Bull). He also transformed downtown New York when he colaunched the Tribeca Film Festival in 2002 in the wake of 9/11, and he expanded our palates by investing in NYC eateries Tribeca Grill, Nobu, and Locanda Verde. De Niro was born and raised in Manhattan to artist parents who, despite separating when he was just a toddler, both left indelible marks. In 2014, he appeared in Remembering the Artist, Robert De Niro, Sr., an HBO documentary about his late father that sought to preserve the painter’s legacy as one…

September 1 Going for the gold! In L.A., Salvatore Ferragamo celebrates its shiny new Beverly Hills flagship with a special-edition, gold-and-black “Hollywood Exclusive” bag. Meanwhile, Michael Kors serves up his Gold Collection of jewelry and fragrances—just the duo to complement a Kors-approved jet-set tan. September 24 Head to MOVE! at NYC’s Brookfield Place. Cecilia Dean and David Colman’s exhibit boasts installations like Splash: Don a Cynthia Rowley–designed smock and get doused in paint, all while being photographed by Swiss artist Olaf Breuning. September 9 FIT’s Couture Council honors Manolo Blahnik with its Artistry of Fashion award for nearly 45 years of shodding such icons as Tina Chow (here with the designer in 1978) and—yes!—SJP. September 29 Legendary shutterbug David Bailey explores the relationship between woman and bag (Tod’s Cape bag,…

THE MODEL Cindy Bruna, below with photographer David Bellemere on location in Marrakech, Morocco, impressed the ELLE team with her tenacity and poise during this month’s “Road to Marrakech” shoot. “We were working in 42°C [107°F], and she was wearing heavy furs and coats and never complained. Not only is she beautiful, but an absolute delight on set,” says ELLE Fashion Director Samira Nasr, who styled this story. A primer on the soon-to-be-everywhere Italian and Congolese stunner: Bruna, 20, was born in Saint-Raphaël, France, and dreamed of becoming an accountant until she was scouted by a Metropolitan Models casting agent at age 16 on a Saint-Tropez beach and quickly whisked off to Paris. Since then, she’s signed on with six agencies, including Wilhelmina in New York and Elite in London.…

JULY 1988: “Americans believe in perfect, bonded romantic love that lasts; Europeans do not. Which is not to say that they do not love—only that they think marriage is too important to be based on anything as flimsy as romantic love.”—Erica Jong, “Are You Faithful, Darling?” FEBRUARY 1990: Gore Vidal: “I’d like to hold a Constitutional Convention... and shore up the Bill of Rights. It is now assumed that the government has every right to regulate your private life, every right to say whether you take drugs or drink or have sex. That’s going to be the big battle of the next 30 or 40 years, this question of whether you have any rights at all.”—David Rieff, “The World According to Gore” NOVEMBER 1992: Anita Hill interviewed on the release…

Have you ever wondered what makes a Rolex a Rolex? Or, more to the point, what justifies a $72,900 price tag on a device that doesn’t track your caloric expenditure, check the weather, or take a pic of your beloved pooch? This month, in our inaugural Luxury 101 column, we break it down and investigate the craftsmanship, the technology, and the hours that go into crafting this icon, which takes a year to produce!…

NAME: Kei Ninomiya AGE: 31 PROVENANCE: Oita, Japan CURRICULUM VITAE: Kei Ninomiya, the designer of the newest addition to the Comme des Garçons stable (which, in addition to the Ur-conceptual label, includes Junya Watanabe and buzzy menswear line Ganryu), earned a degree in French literature before enrolling in the fashion design program at Belgium’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts, the prestigious training ground of such greats as Martin Margiela and Dries Van Noten. But he quit to take a job as a patternmaker. “My school was Comme des Garçons,” Ninomiya says. COMME DESTINY: Ninomiya grew up on Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s main islands, famous for its hot springs, and became interested in fashion when he wandered into a Comme des Garçons store there in high school. “I thought it…

In his fourth season as the artistic director of Boss, fashion darling Jason Wu– who made his name with FLOTUS-approved modern powerdresses–has found new and beguiling ways to marry his ultrafeminine aesthetic with the codes of the 91-year-old German house, specifically its legacy of ultramasculine suiting. The results are strong yet graceful silhouettes, like this übersexy, slimly tailored navy tuxedo created exclusively for ELLE. Both assertive and easy, seductive and practical, it’s exactly the kind of tux that suits us very well, thank you.…

Joy Williams’s influential and long-revered body of work jubilantly defies the pigeonholing that can shadow artists, in particular women di una certa età. The Visiting Privilege: New and Collected Stories (Knopf), her first collection in 10 years, showcases 46 tales by a wizard of elegant economy, fearless wit, and sly surprise. Edgy, seductive concision is one key to her stories’ appeal; another is her uncanny ability to illuminate hidden pockets of the human heart. The anthology draws from three earlier collections as well as new stories previously unavailable in book form. Near the opening of “Shepherd,” about the burden of love, a young girl muses on the recent loss of her dog. “He had a famous trick. When the girl said, ‘Do you love me?’ he would leap up, all…

SPIRIT ANIMALS Each fable in Ceridwen Dovey’s ingenious Only the Animals (FSG) is narrated by a departed beast whose eloquent soul bares a moving life story. “I, the Elephant, Wrote This” begins, “My twin sister and I, like all young elephants in our herd, were raised on a feast of stories about our ancestors….” RUSHDIE RETURNS In Salman Rushdie’s Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights (Random House), mischievous jinn with potent powers descend on a ravaged posttempest New York. A battle royale plays out between good and evil, featuring a gold digger, a lowly gardener, and a supernaturally gifted abandoned baby. THE BOOK OF LIFE “When I grow up,” Mary Karr wrote in 1965, “I will write 1/2 poetry and 1/2 autobiography.” True to her word, her latest, The…

LASH LOOK: HEAVY-DUTY MASCARA The doll-eyed ’60s look popped up at Giambattista Valli, No. 21, Nanette Lepore, and Paul & Joe. Try the new spike- enhancing, extra-thick (almost clumpy) Maybelline Chaotic. TOOL TIME: A CRIMPER For the disco-diva texture seen at Allude, Olympia Le-Tan, and Vanessa Seward, clamp oneinch sections with a crimper (such as the Hot Tools Micro, right) and comb through with fingers or a paddle brush. EYE ENHANCER: PEACH SHADOW The shade “brightens the eyes and gives a soft, gorgeous warmth,” says McGrath, who mixed acustom hue at Prada, while Diane Kendal used Nars Fervor Blush at Thakoon. HEAD GEAR: BLACK BANDS Whether camelliaembellished at Chanel or ruched leather at Fendi, this private-school standby is back in a big way. TEST DRIVE One beauty writer, three runway…

WHERE THERE’S SMOKE… Simultaneously elegant and badass, the smoky eye has been an inky emblem of ELLE’s ownyour-sex-appeal ethos since model Yasmin Le Bon (née Parvaneh) graced our first-ever issue in September 1985—her skin bare but her eyes dusted with smoldering black shadow. “This fullon glossy metallic eye is a nod to the courageous attitude of the ’80s,” says Pat McGrath, P&G global creative director. “It takes inspiration from an oil slick, modernized with a rich, molten, burgundy finish.” THE SHINING “It’s the perfect example of taking a classic look and playing with texture to make it new,” says McGrath of her futuristically sleek update on the bold red lip. The magic, she says, is contrast: The glassy, pigmentdrenched ruby set against bare skin is striking without being overdone. McGrath…

In1985, 31-year-old Nancy Silverton moved to New York from Los Angeles to take over the kitchen of a restaurant called Maxwell’s Plum with her then husband Mark Peel. Anita Lo was studying French literature at Columbia University. At age 11, in Birmingham, England, April Bloomfield had dreams of joining the police force. Meanwhile, a toddler named Christina Tosi was living in Springfield, Virginia, probably licking whatever bowl of batter her grandmother had put in front of her. Men ruled the food world—David Bouley, Eric Ripert, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten among them—and were celebrated in the pages of ELLE. Over the next two and a half decades, as the word “celebrity” became affixed to “chef” and cooking professionally became a focal point of pop-cultural discourse, women were generally left out of the…

Dolls, we’re sitting in the luxury box seats at the greatest show on earth. And for ELLE’s swank 30th Anniversary Issue— ELLE! I love you!—I’d planned to boom through a couple of decades of Ask Eeee letters, tabulate the “30 grandest things” women most often mention they wished they could do, and— voilà!—edify the planet. Bah! It turns out that I and 60,000 Ask Eeee correspondents all either wish for the same things—to be happy, to fall in love, to use our talents to lessen the suffering in the world, to see our children thrive, to be better than we used to be, and to wear a size 6 (2, 14, 22, 8)—or we want something so impossibly idiosyncratic (seeing two hairdressers at the same time, for instance) that I…

“I started thinking about the Olympics when I was nine. My mom said I used to do paintings and sign my name ‘The Greatest Skier of All Time.’” LINDSEY VONN, SKIER “This has been my year of self-realization. I started paying attention to what my mind, my body, my spirit were telling me about my life, personally and careerwise.” GRACE GEALEY, ACTRESS, EMPIRE (MIDDLE) “Working with women, you just get so much shit done—the lack of ego and posturing. It is a much more supportive room.” CAMILLA BLACKETT, TV WRITER, FRESH OFF THE BOAT “I feel as if I’m reaching a new level of responsibility with regard to my physical upkeep that I previously didn’t care about. I was like, ‘I’m grungy,’ and now I’m like, ‘I’m an adult. I…

So, yes, 1985 happens to be the year that the first domain name was registered, but anachronism notwithstanding, what would our site have looked like our first year in print? And, more importantly, what would we have been talking about? On September 10 Throwback Thursday, naturally all day long, we’ll be revisiting everything from the exaggerated silhouettes and megahair that dominated our fashion pages to the brains, athletes, basket cases, princesses, and criminals who defined an era. #THISIS30 Help @ELLEUSA ring in the magazine’s milestone birthday with a little social experiment Thirty is a big year for anyone. And though the number of days is finite, no two women’s stories are the same (see page 638 for a photo portfolio of inspiring women our age). In homage to three decades…

“Amber stuns on the red carpet, and sadly that’s the most I knew of her (besides who she is married to). I was happy the story didn’t merely feature her relationship with Johnny Depp. Of course, the beautiful celebrity couple is fascinating, but I was more interested to learn about her persistent journey toward becoming an actress. Her urge to be taken seriously is admirable, and her diligence and talent—not just her looks or relationship—will earn her more challenging, non–That Girl roles.” —Alyssa Fisher, e-mail An Amber Heard ELLE interview quote from the cutting-room floor: “You find these placeholder girls that are there to provide a bounce for the male character. We know he’s funny because she’s serious, and she’s mad at him. We know he’s strong because she needs…

Nine years ago this month, ELLE celebrated its 21st birthday at Bloomingdale’s, the site where the magazine debuted as part of the department store’s celebration of French culture. With its oversize format, signature color-rich printing, and bold, graphic design, it certainly didn’t look like any other magazine in the American market, yet it was the first fashion magazine to regularly use models who actually did look like America. The dark-eyed, dark-haired, tawny-skinned beauty Yasmin Le Bon (née Parvaneh) graced the cover of that first issue, a woman who was, at that time, relegated to the category of “ethnic” or “exotic” by both modeling and advertising agencies. Elle Macpherson, the six-foot stunner (and then wife of ELLE’s storied creative director Gilles Bensimon)—along with models Karen Alexander, Rachel Williams, Gabby Reece, Tyra…

Ah, women. We must be the most underrated—and most overrated— creatures going, mythologized and demonized at one and the same time, given credit and denied the spotlight concurrently, seen as the root cause of any problem as well as its solution, but rarely (if ever) just seen for ourselves. Freud certainly didn’t create the situation, but he didn’t help matters any by asking his famously vexed question: What do women want? As if what we want is different, at its core, from what other people—men, for instance—wanted. This isn’t to argue for an overriding similarity of the sexes but rather to suggest that what distinguishes women from men isn’t so easily gotten at, once you move past the biology. (Although it’s worth noting that the mammalian body plan is basically…

MILAN In the documentary Jeremy Scott: The People’s Designer, fans of the Moschino creative director’s culture-bending, beautifully eccentric runway spectaculars—filled with riffs on McDonald’s logos and Barbie mirror iPhone cases—will witness his humanizing trajectory from disenfranchised teen in rural Missouri to the world stage, dressing Katy Perry for the Super Bowl. moschino.com NEW YORK Fall’s pack of fashion titles promises a 360 view of the industry’s most illustrious figures: Strut the runways with perennial muse Cindy Crawford in Becoming (Rizzoli). Jump behind the lens with photographers Chris von Wangenheim in Gloss (Rizzoli), Terry Richardson in two volumes titled Portraits and Fashion (Rizzoli), and Andy Warhol in Polaroids (Taschen). And venture into the deep, dark world of Alexander McQueen’s creative consciousness in Blood Beneath the Skin (Scribner). rizzoliusa.com, taschen.com, simonandschuster.biz MUMBAI,…

AFTER-WORK GLAM IN A FLASH Amelia Hoffman, Photo Editor Versatility ranks high on Hoffman’s workweekuniform checklist, as her days range from prepping photo studios for a shoot to meeting prospective photographers after work. “The clothes have to be comfortable because I’m always running around,” she says. Her solution: neutral blouses with trousers or boyfriend jeans that can be easily elevated with a jacket. “For me, the jacket’s the most reliable piece—it goes a long way.” What She’s Wearing: A Sonia Rykiel cape ($3,920); Carven turtleneck ($740); Acne Studios wide-leg trousers ($620); Victoria Beckham clutch ($2,550); and Jimmy Choo suede pumps ($595). Why It Works: The slim-fitting turtleneck and wide-leg trousers provide on-the-go ease; the suede cape acts as an unexpected alternative to Hoffman’s standby jacket and adds evening drama. BLANKCANVAS…

ART FAIR I’ve fallen in love with the unique characters artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye dreams up in her paintings, especially this elegant one called Any Number of Preoccupations (anyone who knows me can attest to my love for a white shoe). This month, I’m hoping to catch her show at London’s Serpentine Gallery (through September 13). TOP COAT I’m making a beeline for this leather jacket I tried on backstage after Loewe’s fall show in Paris. You can’t have too many Perfectos! But my true outerwear obsession is the overcoat. Max Mara’s version is perfect: luxe, a tad oversize, and just the right shade. Madewell’s more walletfriendly iteration? The next best thing. STOCKING BROKER I don’t feel women need to reinvent their wardrobe each season; sometimes it’s about road testing new…

KING’S GAMBIT Director Edward Zwick (Glory, Legends of the Fall) delivers a mind-bending psychological thriller in Pawn Sacrifice, about the Cold War–era face-off between American chess savant Bobby Fischer (Tobey Maguire) and the USSR’s Boris Spassky (a broody Liev Schreiber). Lily Rabe plangently portrays Fischer’s sister, who sees that, as someone else puts it, “chess is a rabbit hole.” A SINGULAR VISION In Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine, doc-meister Alex Gibney captures the legendary “reality distortion field” his subject created around himself—yielding grand ambitions, superachievement, and bad feelings. Both Jobs’s genius and his dark side, and how he drove Apple Inc. to glory with beautiful devices made in difficult conditions, are depicted with vivid insight and nuance. INTO HARM’S WAY Owen Wilson, in a rare action role, masterfully…

There’s nothing so frightening as a glimpse at a believable nearfuture, and Claire Vaye Watkins’s prescient Gold Fame Citrus (Riverhead) offers something that feels all too real. Watkins, herself a native of the Mojave Desert she appropriates for the novel, stirred up major buzz in 2012 with her prize-sweeping story collection Battleborn, and this debut novel brims with her intensity and unparalleled imagination. Set in the nightmare sprawl of a rainless, dystopian Southern California, the story opens with former model Luz and her boyfriend Ray, a once-soldier, once-surfer, living in a mansion long abandoned by its last occupant—a starlet who left behind diamonds when even fistfuls of cash couldn’t reverse the unending drought. The land of citrus, gold, and fame has been sucked dry, and Luz and Ray are among…

OUR ANNUAL FALL CULTURE PREVIEW! 1 THE NEXT QUEEN BEE When actress Skyler Samuels, 21, enrolled at Stanford, she says, “I was a total nerd. I’d never seen a red Solo cup in my entire life.” But she was curious about the whole sorority thing and decided to rush, eventually joining Kappa Alpha Theta. “I thought, Somehow this life experience is gonna pay off.” Fast-forward to this September, when she’ll star as coed Grace Gardner in Ryan Murphy’s new dark comedy series, Scream Queens (FOX)— about a sorority terrorized by a serial killer. “I’m the leader of this group of misfits,” Samuels says of her Nancy Drew–like character, who’s determined to solve the campus murders. “Grace and I are both very loyal, all about justice and not letting mean girls…

THE BLEACHEDBROW CURE Invisible brows, which make models’ faces a blank canvas on the runway, are par for the course, especially in Milan and Paris. But “it’s something that I have yet to get used to,” Karlie Kloss says. “It’s not a natural look.” TRY THIS: At home in NYC, “I dye them back at Yana’s herbal salon on Sixth Avenue,” Kloss says. Plus, “she does good shaping.” For a fix when Kloss is on the road: “Just For Men dye is the trick.” THE HEATTOOL FIX Redken spokesperson Soo Joo Park protects her “high-maintenance” bleachedblond hair from styling damage during fashion month with restorative treatments. TRY THIS: “At night I do a hair mask to strengthen my hair, especially after a long day of working,” she says. “To seal…

FRESH DIRECT The burst of lilac is the first thing you see, but it’s the fresh, clear skin that defines this look. In the more-ismore ’80s, when makeup (particularly foundation) was swathed on impasto, ELLE always emphasized skin that looked like skin—and the feel here, with what McGrath calls a “fearless lip,” is unexpectedly minimalist. “Seamless blending is the key,” she says of making a complexion look this unadorned yet this flawless. She mixed two foundations, smoothing on a lighter one to highlight the center of the face and a deeper shade around the perimeter to create depth. McGrath also left the eyes mostly bare and accentuated the cheeks with a dab of blush to enhance the skin’s natural flush. WHERE THERE’S SMOKE “Sultry, smoky eyes with high-impact lashes look…

Wang Pang Zi Donkey Burger is hard to miss. The restaurant, situated on a busy street on the edge of one of Beijing’s ancient, alley-tangled hutong neighborhoods, boasts a banana-yellow banner and, taped to the windows, colorful photos of mysterious-looking menu items. The burgers themselves— surprisingly palatable slices of garlicky meat tucked into flaky buns—aren’t the most intriguing draw, nor are the various innards or hunks of marrow that can be ordered as sides. “Young women, especially, come here to eat donkey hide,” the chef tells me, unrolling an expanse of what looks like thick wet leather, which he will soon slice and sauté, across a kitchen countertop. “They believe it keeps them beautiful.” In China, the tradition of consuming certain foods to rejuvenate the complexion is a very old…

GIORGIO ARMANI WITH MODEL KAROLINA KURKOVA “I got into fashion by accident,” Armani says. “I had the opportunity to state my vision and my style, creating clothes that would change attitudes and make people feel good.” Karolina doesn’t just wear clothes—she interprets them, bringing out the contrasts and naturalness of my style.” Kurkova wears: Embroidered-silk dress, earrings, bangles, sandals all, GIORGIO ARMANI PRIVÉ, prices on request, at Giorgio Armani, NYC. For story details, see Shopping Guide. Styled by Monica Dolfini LAZARO HERNANDEZ AND JACK McCOLLOUGH OF PROENZA SCHOULER WITH ACTRESS CHLOË SEVIGNY “Her undeniable confidence, her sense of self, her epic style, her intoxicating laugh, and her ballsy creative choices....There are many Chloë imitators, but no one comes close. She’s the muse of an entire generation.” What drives them? “Fashion…

VIRGO THIS MONTH FOR VIRGO: (AUG 23–SEPT 22) Tricky Neptune is still in your commitment house, so begin September wary of contractual agreements and use your knowledge of a partner to make informed decisions. When it comes to amorous meetings, Venus joins Mars on the 1st in your house of secrets, making any clandestine relationships ill advised. You’re now in the finest period in over a decade for finding love, so don’t waste energy on less-than-perfect prospects. The 13th’s solar eclipse will see positive life changes that encourage security and stability. Pluto will be ideally angled, adding the chance for more romance. If happily coupled, you may receive good news about a child or a pregnancy, and elsewhere in your chart creative pursuits could reach a thrilling breakthrough. During Mercury’s…