Indholdsfortegnelse for Volume 3, 2024 i W Magazine

Carlijn Jacobs Photographer, “Shady Lady” (page 136) Is there an up-and-coming musician who you think deserves the hype? Cktrl is a very talented musician who creates mesmerizing atmospheres with his sounds. What do you consider the most important pop culture moment of all time? Britney Spears shaving her head. If you could sit down for a drink with any pop culture icon, dead or alive, who would it be? Michael Jackson. I wish I could have photographed him. Such a unique look. Tess Petronio Photographer, “The Originals: BFRND” (page 148) What song do you think you’ve listened to the most in your life? “Just Like Heaven,” by the Cure. I listen to it every morning. What was the first concert you ever attended? Snoop Dogg. I was wearing ’90s Death…

Every Saturday night for five years in the mid-2000s, New York’s coolest kids descended on the Misshapes, a weekly downtown dance party. Come Monday morning, the rest of the world would log on to their desktops to find out who showed up and what they wore. The Misshapes was ground zero for what the Internet now calls “indie sleaze”—a communion of in-the-know editors, models, and anyone who looked good in skinny jeans, thrift store finds, and lots and lots of American Apparel. At the center of it all were the DJs Leigh Lezark, Geordon Nicol, and Greg Krelenstein, the titular hosts, who spun a mix of indie, dance, electro, and pop. As the party’s profile grew, so did theirs. Soon the Misshapes were being flown to perform at Versace parties.…

On a perfect spring day in New York City, Miley Cyrus walked into a photo studio wearing jeans and a black Gucci jacket. Her hair was wet, and her instantly recognizable face was partially obscured by big sunglasses. I had never met Cyrus before, but we quickly started chatting. She was warm, funny, friendly, and confident—someone who exudes joy and makes you feel happy to be around her. She said that it would not take a long time to fit clothes on her, and she wasn’t kidding: Everything she tried on looked amazing. We spent the day dancing to Serge Gainsbourg, talking about her epic Grammys performance and the equally epic Maison Margiela look she wore on the red carpet. Cyrus was going on a much-deserved vacation the day after…

When Henry Zankov was a child, he set up a make-believe clothing store in his bedroom. “I would say to my brother, ‘What would you like to buy today?’ ” he recalls, laughing. “I would sketch designs, and I even had a catalog. It was crazy but sweet.” Zankov, who is now 43, has made his younger self proud. We’re sitting in his apartment, in Brooklyn’s Carroll Gardens neighborhood, surrounded by racks of colorful clothing guarded closely by his Scottish Terrier, Georgina. The space also serves as his studio and the showroom for his namesake knitwear brand, which he launched in February 2020—just before pandemic lockdowns went into effect—with a small collection of bold looks for men and women. Despite the unfortunate timing, he found success with his exuberant, artful,…

When Pharrell Williams was growing up in Virginia Beach, his grandmother took him to the Neptune Festival, a parade in the Seven Cities region. The annual celebration honored one local Good Samaritan by crowning them King Neptune, something akin to being named community MVP. This, Williams explains on a Zoom call from his home base, in Tokyo, is just one of many ways the theme of water has played a significant role in his life. “I was raised in a neighborhood called Atlantis—the city in the sea,” Williams tells me. “I loved this cartoon called Jabberjaw, about this huge shark who played in a band called the Neptunes. I was obsessed with the beach, taking showers, sinks, and running water. When I heard the sound of running water, music would…

BFRND Musician You met Demna, the artistic director of Balenciaga, in 2016. A year later, the two of you were married in Switzerland and you created your first soundtrack for a Balenciaga runway show—a musical collaboration that has continued for each of the label’s presentations since. How has your life-work balance evolved over time? Because I work hand in hand with him, it has pretty much stayed the same. The music is an extension of his own creative expression. My job at Balenciaga is to translate clothes into music. What has evolved is our relationship. You can feel this evolution in our confidence in ourselves; you can feel it in the music; you can feel it in the collections and in the shows. The soundtrack for Balenciaga’s spring-summer 2024 presentation…

When it comes to exquisite leather goods, all roads lead to Rome—specifically, to Fendi. What began as a tiny local concern founded nearly a century ago by Adele and Edoardo Fendi has grown into an international powerhouse and a byword for both artisanal savoir faire and contemporary design. If Fendi today is high-fashion shorthand for outstanding craftsmanship, it is in no small part due to the success of Selleria, a tone-on-tone top-stitching technique borrowed from Rome’s master saddlers. (The word means “saddlery” in Italian.) Handsewn and made of the highest-quality leather, Fendi’s Selleria bags were an instant success when they were introduced in 1925. Two decades later, the Fendi reins were passed from Adele and Edoardo to their daughters, Anna, Alda, Carla, Franca, and Paola, with each taking responsibility for…

“Nobody can understand the food,” the Nigerian songbird Tems tells me, beaming. “Plantain and eggs, this bean stew called ewa riro, and this really soft, dense bread called agege. It’s to die for!” As one of the most streamed African female artists in the world, and one of the leaders of a new wave of African pop that has swept the globe, Tems no longer gets to spend much time eating her favorite dishes in her hometown of Lagos. “Home is where the heart is, and my heart is within me,” she replies coolly when I ask if life on the road is difficult. “I am home now—wherever I am is home.” At the time of our Zoom call, Tems is in Los Angeles, preparing for her upcoming Coachella performance.…

True to form, Miley Cyrus blasted through this year’s Grammys like a wrecking ball. Hair teased to the cosmos, she hit the red carpet in a risqué Maison Margiela Artisanal dress made out of 14,000 gold safety pins—the first of five dramatic outfits. She performed “Flowers,” the best-selling global single of last year, in shimmering vintage Bob Mackie, serving face and tossing quips (“Why are you acting like you don’t know this song?”) with ’70s-Cher aplomb. After slipping into a one-shoulder sequined Gucci number by Sabato De Sarno, the veteran singer accepted Record of the Year with a wink-wink, nudge-nudge acknowledgement that it was her very first Grammy win. “This award is amazing, but I really hope that it doesn’t change anything, because my life was beautiful yesterday,” she said,…