Indholdsfortegnelse for Volume 2, 2021 i W Magazine

Sofia Coppola and Zoë Ghertner Director and Photographer, “All Dressed Up With Nowhere to Go” (page 106) Did you ever stage photo shoots as a kid? SC: I found some Polaroids from when I was 10—modeling with my friend, in blazers, with French braids, and holding cognac glasses by a large globe in a library room. I was into sophistication! What was the first film you remember seeing that served as a source of inspiration for you? ZG: Not to sound cool, but my mother was in grad school for film when I was in high school, and I remember her bringing home Maya Deren movies. At the same time, The Virgin Suicides came to the video rental store in my tiny town, and I watched that over and over again…

In 2016, when Maria Grazia Chiuri, the newly appointed creative director at Dior, sent a model down the runway in a long skirt and a T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan we should all be feminists—the title of the 2014 manifesto by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie—it was a brazen statement in support of a cause still considered controversial. Most people in fashion had publicly endorsed feminism in specific instances, like during Hillary Clinton’s run for president, but steered clear of persistent questions about how the clothes women wear help—or hinder—them in their efforts to lead a full life. I had two thoughts at the time: One, how does a designer follow through on that kind of proclamation? (A recent book, Her Dior: Maria Grazia Chiuri’s New Voice, tracks her progress.) And two,…

Sophia Loren Actor, Force of Nature In The Life Ahead, your return to the screen after a decade, you play Madame Rosa, a Holocaust survivor and former prostitute who embarks on an unlikely friendship with a young Senegalese immigrant. What drew you to the role? She’s full of contradictions. She’s dramatic. She’s funny. She’s strong, but she’s soft, and also very poetic sometimes. She reminds me a lot of my mother—maybe, in a way, that’s why I accepted the role. Because my mother was a great artist. She played the piano beautifully, wonderfully. And she was always with us. She took care of us. The film shows a very different side of Italy, especially from films you’ve starred in in the past. Italy is not a postcard; it’s a country…

Planning the Directors Issue, which is now in its fourth iteration, is one of my favorite moments of the year. Collaborating with phenomenal filmmakers at pivotal moments in their career is an honor, and this time around, when so many brilliant women were putting out incredible movies, that was even more true. We were thrilled to work with Regina King, Sofia Coppola, and Emerald Fennell, who were given free rein to conceive and execute their stories as they saw fit. It was fascinating to witness how they approached the process in completely different ways, but with the same degree of dedication. King was first up. I met King a couple of years ago, when we photographed her for our 2019 Best Performances portfolio, and it was clear that she was…

Are the figures in a painting by Christina Quarles taking shape or dematerializing? Solidifying or dissolving? The viewer can’t be sure. That indeterminacy reflects the artist’s sense of who she is. A mixed-race queer woman living in Los Angeles, Quarles was the breakout discovery of the New Museum’s “Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon” group show in 2017. In that setting, her paintings seemed to be addressing gender fluidity. But, as she told me then, it’s race, not gender, that has preoccupied her since childhood. “Mom is white, Dad is Black,” she explained. “I am fair-skinned and usually seen as white by white people, but I’m seen more as mixed identity in communities of color.” Her racial profile depends on the context of the moment. “My experience is…

What do 1970s and ’80s icons Diana Ross, Annie Lennox, and Jerry Hall have in common, besides high-octane glamour and eye-catching fashion choices? Why, their killer contoured cheekbones and well-documented affairs with blush, of course. It’s no wonder this dynamic trio inspired London-based makeup artist Lynsey Alexander to create a series of cheeky looks starring Rose Hermès, a brand-new blush collection from Hermès Beauty. Diva references not with standing, the resulting images are surprisingly down-to-earth. “I wanted the look to feel like it’s from a fan’s point of view—sort of a youthful DIY approach to makeup and color,” says Alexander, who knows a thing or two about idol worship. “Growing up in rural Scotland in the ’80s and ’90s, my brothers and I had Smash Hits covers of Madonna, Sade,…

When Sam Levinson was 11 years old, he went into a severe depression. “I was in and out of psychiatric hospitals,” Levinson told me on a surprisingly chilly winter afternoon in Los Angeles. We were sitting far apart near the pool at the Four Seasons Hotel, which, due to Covid-19 restrictions, was nearly empty. Levinson, who wrote and directed the HBO series Euphoria and the Netflix romantic drama Malcolm & Marie, pulled down his mask only to smoke a cigarette (“I’m allowed two a day”) or to drink the room service coffee that I had ordered for him. He’d brought his own striped mug. “I can taste the cleaning soap in other cups,” he explained, “so my wife handed this to me when I left the house.” Although he said…

In October 2016, one year after he was abruptly fired as creative director of Lanvin, Alber Elbaz was awarded France’s highest honor, the Légion d’Honneur. “As it was while I was between jobs, I thought, God, who will come? Who will remember me? So we just invited 20 friends to the ceremony,” recalls Elbaz, who sketched the self-portrait at right, and is known for his self-deprecating sense of humor. Unsurprisingly, more than 450 people RSVP’d. “I mean, loyalty is not something that we’re known for in the fashion industry, right?” Elbaz says. “But 99 percent of the people that I’ve met throughout my career and my life I really like. Somehow, bad people don’t get glued to my side. They slide off.” Elbaz’s new AZ Factory line eschews the old…

For MOCA director Klaus Biesenbach, 2020 started with a housewarming party. He had just moved into an industrial space in Downtown L.A., originally a sewing machine factory, and hosted a barbecue complete with a firepit and a pizza oven outside. The party drew a good mix of artists, including Mary Weatherford, Barbara Kruger, Doug Aitken, Rafa Esparza, and Simone Forti, who said she was “first to arrive and last to leave”—a minor feat at age 85. A few celebrities showed up as well, including Ricky Martin, a friend of Biesenbach’s whose art-circuit appearances are rare enough that most everybody mistook him for a man who looked a lot like Ricky Martin. Biesenbach’s home, for its part, could pass for an art gallery, as L.A. dealers like David Kordansky and Jeffrey…

Anywhere, U.S.A. That’s where this family of three finds itself, in the backyard of a modest American home. It could be Los Angeles, Detroit, or New York. You can almost hear the sounds of DeBarge or Maze featuring Frankie Beverly—the quintessential track list for any Black family’s reunion, cookout, or lazy weekend afternoon. The fact that the star of these photos is the Oscar-, Emmy-, and Golden Globe–winning actress Viola Davis almost doesn’t register. Instead, we see a classical portrait of Black American life. That was director Regina King’s intention when she orchestrated, with the photographer Andre D. Wagner, the images you see here. King began crafting the story months ago by watching old interviews of her friend Davis, in which she could hear “the pain as well as the…

On a bright, beautiful day, at a mansion in Beverly Hills, Zendaya, the 24-year-old actress and producer, was looking at a photo of an elegant 1950s beauty in classic resort-wear standing by a vast, vaguely Grecian swimming pool. The woman in question was C.Z. Guest, a very tan, very blonde socialite who became, in that iconic image by Slim Aarons, the personification of wealth, status, and privilege. Next to Zendaya was Law Roach, her longtime stylist and collaborator, who was wearing a denim Prada trenchcoat and a baseball cap that read respect the sexy. They had studied other well-known images on Roach’s phone—Elvis with a sultry Priscilla Presley sitting on his lap; the French crooner and sex symbol Serge Gainsbourg nuzzling Jane Birkin, his young girlfriend; an elaborately coiffed model…

Hair by Yann Turchi for L’Oréal Professionnel at Bryant Artists; makeup by Anthony Preel at ArtList. Models: Ali Ridgway at Milk Management; Assa Baradji at Heroes Models; Ylang Messenguiral at Premium Models; Dio at Keva Legault. Casting by Michelle Lee Casting.…

Hair by Gary Gill at Streeters; makeup by Mel Arter for Chanel Beauty at Julian Watson Agency. Models: Ava Akilu at Wilhelmina London; Precious Kevin at Titanium Management; Elise Revett at Next Models. Casting by Michelle Lee Casting.…