Innehållsförteckning för Volume 4, 2023 från W Magazine

Mert Alas Photographer, “Taking Flight” (page 142) What do you consider the most iconic fashion show of all time? Alexander McQueen’s “Dante” show from fall/winter 1996. It was art and storytelling, a beautiful presentation of dark fantasy. Brilliantly cut garments. Eye-wateringly romantic yet fiercely sexual. What long-lost item of clothing do you wish you still had? My Gaultier kilt from the ’90s and my Helmut Lang nylon pants. I have no idea how they disappeared. Which fashion trends are you into right now? I don’t usually follow trends, though I appreciate them. I have two looks: jean-on-jean or a tuxedo. Marie-Amélie Sauvé Stylist, “Taking Flight” (page 142) What’s your favorite fashion film? Funny Face, by Stanley Donen. What’s on your fall shopping list? I have my eye on the following…

Ten years after moving to New York to pursue modeling full-time, Gigi Hadid has arguably rewritten the supermodel playbook. She came on to the scene at a time when some of the biggest fashion houses didn’t even have an Instagram presence and models maintained an “if you know, you know” mystique, setting herself apart as a social media phenomenon who was as relatable as she was aspirational. The industry transformed itself in her wake, and in due time she ticked off all the major milestones: campaigns, covers, couture runways. But in early 2020, she began imagining a life for herself on her own terms. And that’s when she decided to get an office job. “I started thinking about a more stabilized work schedule, where I wasn’t having to fly to…

Bethann Hardison Modeling Legend, Advocate, Filmmaker In the 1970s, you were a trailblazing Black fashion model. In the ’80s, you became a modeling agent and launched your own agency. All the while, you’ve been championing racial diversity in the fashion business. Now you’ve codirected Invisible Beauty, a documentary autobiography, with Frédéric Tcheng. How did you come up with the title? I had that title for a long time. Originally, this film was an exposé on the fashion industry. It might have come up because the novel Invisible Man [by the African American writer Ralph Ellison], back in the day, was a big thing. When Frédéric and I thought to collaborate, I told him about that title, even though I had decided to let the film be about me instead. He asked…

It is often said that fall is the equivalent of the New Year in fashion. As September rolls around, the time comes to put down our summer reads, banish our bathing suits to the back of the closet, and start seriously thinking about the season ahead—and what we’re going to wear. With the spirit of new beginnings in mind, we felt that this issue should pay tribute to everything that is fresh, exciting, forward-thinking, and surprising in the world of style. To that end, we chose six supermodels who we feel represent the spirit of the moment. Kaia Gerber is doing the fashion thing her way, much like her mother, supermodel Cindy Crawford, did decades ago. Gerber, the face of Hedi Slimane’s Celine, is a budding multihyphenate who, in addition…

When Marc Jacobs calls at the end of June, it’s been four days since his fall 2023 show at the New York Public Library, on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. People were still trying to figure it out. As has been the case for the past few years, the presentation was off-calendar, bare-bones, and far more intimate than the grand theatrical spectacles Jacobs once produced. A lot has changed for the designer since he did away with his jaw-dropping sets and scaled back his collections, which are now sold in a single store, Bergdorf Goodman. But audiences still look to Jacobs for direction, and he delivers—provocatively, as usual. This time, he presented the collection only as a finale: The models marched up and down the runway in a line as they…

Mona Tougaard keeps herself busy. This year alone, the 21-year-old model walked 39 runways, starred in eight major campaigns, and appeared on four magazine covers. At the time of this interview, the haute couture shows—where Tougaard opened for Schiaparelli and closed for Jacquemus—have just wrapped, and she’s taking some well-deserved time off. She speaks on the phone rather than over Zoom from her home, in Copenhagen—Tougaard doesn’t own a laptop, and hasn’t since she was 16. “I don’t feel like I need a computer. I have my phone. That’s pretty much it,” she says matter-of-factly. In a world filled with hyper-online Gen Zers, it’s a refreshing—even shocking—reveal. It’s also just one of the many things that set Tougaard apart from her peers. She was discovered when she was 12 years…

When Liu Wen closed Prada’s fall 2023 show last February, it marked the first time the model had set foot on a catwalk since her homeland of China shut its borders at the start of the pandemic. On Instagram, she thanked designers Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons, and told her 6 million followers that it was “such a surreal feeling” to be “back on the runway after more than three years.” And back she was, closing Bottega Veneta and Alexander McQueen; walking for Loewe, Schiaparelli, Givenchy, and Miu Miu; and sitting front row at Chanel next to her boyfriend, the actor Jing Boran. Famously dubbed “China’s first bona fide supermodel” by the press, Liu has, over the past 15 years, compiled a series of accomplishments so unique that her career…

Released in 1931 as a men’s polo watch, the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso is an Art Deco design classic to rival the Chrysler Building. A gleaming symbol of between-the-wars modernity, the Reverso reflected the artistic and technological innovations of its time. It had a pivoting action that allowed for the case to turn over, keeping the watch protected while the wearer played; a flat metal surface could better resist a whack from a wooden ball than the glass face. The Reverso wasn’t all about function, though. Its handsome rectangular design was inspired in part by the ancient golden ratio mathematical formula, very much in vogue at the time and considered by many, across centuries, to be the most harmonious and pleasing stylistic proportion. Perhaps that is why the Reverso was one of…

It’s not shocking to hear that Kaia Gerber gets complimented…a lot. When she’s walking around Malibu, where she grew up, or Los Angeles, where she currently resides, keeping it low-key in her off-duty outfit of “a good white T-shirt, Adidas Sambas, and $5 sweatpants,” people often approach her to praise her work. But while you can commend her latest Celine campaign or her appearance in the most recent Valentino couture show, what she’s really interested in is hearing your thoughts on what she’s reading. “When someone comes up to me to talk about my book club, I will talk to them all day,” the 22-year-old says of her Instagram Live series, on which she’s discussed everything from Slave Play with its playwright, Jeremy O. Harris, to My Body with author…

In 2017, when Anok Yai was a 19-year-old student at Plymouth State University, she attended Howard University’s homecoming, where a photographer captured her in denim cutoffs and a sheer turtleneck, the detritus of a college bacchanal strewn across the grass behind her. The image went viral on Instagram minutes after it was posted. “When I first saw the number of notifications I was getting, I thought that I had become a meme,” says Yai. “I was too scared to open my phone. I was like, Oh my god, everyone’s going to know. I can’t go back home.” In fact, she was getting showered with praise, and that picture launched a career with unprecedented swiftness. Within 24 hours, Yai gained upwards of 30,000 followers on social media. Then the agencies came…

At a moment when it seems like every celebrity who’s ever washed her face is launching a beauty line, Kendall Jenner is taking a different path: In July, the model and entrepreneur signed on as L’Oréal’s newest global ambassador. Why partner with a 114-year-old brand instead of starting her own thing? “I love wearing makeup, playing around with it, and learning from makeup artists on set, but I never really saw myself being in a lab creating products,” says Jenner. “I think I’ll leave that to the pros who know what they’re doing and have a passion for it—like my sisters.” (For any readers whose medicine cabinets contain only toothpaste and Q-tips, Jenner’s siblings include Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian, whose combined contributions to the cosmetics industry have been valued…