Honey Dijon And Kim Jones On What Happened To Nightlife

Honey Dijon grew up on the South Side of Chicago and came of age in the clubs that birthed house music, which, she points out, has its true origins in queer Black culture. Mentored by seminal Chicago house DJ Derrick Carter and, later, Danny Tenaglia in New York—synthesizing influences along the way from Grace Jones and Sade to John Waters and Detroit techno—she developed the signature sound and striking visual presence that has shaped her into an internationally sought-after performer and producer. Splitting her time (pre-pandemic) between New York and Berlin, Honey could be found jetting across the globe on a weekly basis to play the world’s best venues, including Berghain in Berlin, Output in NYC, Space in Ibiza, and Smartbar in Chicago, as well as festivals and fashion parties from Paris to Tokyo. Honey, whose next album Black Girl Magic drops later this year, has also remixed tracks for artists including Jessie Ware and Lady Gaga, and has a clothing line in partnership with Comme des Garçons, Honey Fucking Dijon, now in its third season. She is a furious creator, likening herself to Fran Lebowitz in the sentiment that work is her vacation.

It was through fashion, and a mutual appreciation for Paris Is Burning, that she befriended designer Kim Jones, whose runway soundtracks she has worked on from his tenure at Louis Vuitton menswear to his current position as artistic director of Dior Men, and now at Fendi, where he was recently appointed artistic director of the women’s collection, debuting with the Spring 2021 couture collection in January this year. Natalie Shukur got the longtime friends on the phone—Honey in Berlin and Kim in London—where they talked about their affinity for researching and collecting subcultural ephemera, their disdain for inspiration-zapping internet “like” culture, and their love of small clubs and loud music.

Natalie Shukur: Let’s start at the beginning. How did you both meet?

Kim Jones: We were in New York in 2003 at a presentation KCD had organized for me. Honey came with Andre Walker, and at the end of the night we ended up rolling around on the floor drunk together!

Honey Dijon: That’s about right. My introduction to Kim was, I was going to DJ in London with my best friend Derrick Carter. There was a store called The Pineal Eye and we just happened to walk over there, and there was this installation of all these very influential, historic Chicago house records and flyers. Derrick and I looked at each other and were like, “Who the fuck knows about this other than us?!” I wasn’t aware of Kim at that time, and I saw that it was him. After that I started to see his name pop up because I was always buying i-D magazine. Then I was in New York and I kept talking to people about Kim Jones and this exhibit, and one of those people was Andre Walker who told me about your presentation, and that’s how we ended up meeting.

KJ: That was actually my 2002 graduate collection from [Central] Saint Martins, and the two people I met through that were you and Michael Stipe, because he bought quite a lot of the collection, and you and Derrick got into it, and then John Galliano bought half the collection as well. And that’s how I started. I never wanted to do my own brand, I just wanted to get a job, and then I sort of did it for eight years. Honey, I think you started doing the music in 2005.

HD: Yeah, we have such a long history. It’s so funny because you’re always the same Kim to me, but to see how much you’ve achieved is just so incredible. You were so generous in the beginning of our friendship when I would come to London, you’d let me stay at your house, and we would both geek out because I’m such a collector and a research fiend. We’re really like soulmates in that way. We became such good friends through that and then Paris Is Burning [laughs].

KJ: [laughs] Which I first saw on VHS and actually wore the cassette out because I literally watched it on repeat, and I’ve got all the ephemera and extra footage and everything. I got so obsessed with that film. It’s the bravery of those people; it completely opened my mind to a different world. And I remember my first show in Paris I got Willi Ninja to do the casting.

HD: I don’t know how other people work, but Kim is so well versed and so knowledgeable about music, from pop culture to underground dance music to soundtracks to punk or new wave. He’s so clear about things and it’s mostly just about how we can interpret his vision for what he’s doing at the moment.

KJ: Quite often, the music is the thing I think about at the beginning of the collection, and even if we do have other people involved, Honey still does the mixing, like with Nile Rodgers and Giorgio Moroder or Michael Stipe when he came over to your house. . .

HD: Oh my God, I will never forget when Michael Stipe came over to my small studio apartment and we had to put a stocking over a microphone because it was not a proper studio. And he redid the song. When I tell people that, they’re like, “You had Michael Stipe at your house singing on the microphone with pantyhose?” But it just seemed completely normal! Nellee Hooper and Nile Rodgers and Giorgio Moroder—for someone that’s been a part of house music culture since the beginning, working with these pioneers is just like a dream come true. And now just recently having Lady Miss Kier do the vocals for Dior. . .

KJ: Exactly. And Honey introduced me to Kenny [Scharf] and to Kier for that, because obviously she’s a New Yorker and Kier is quite elusive now. But Honey tracked her down.

HD: And she’s not an easy pickle to track down, either! But it’s been fun—especially working in fashion, which can be really esoteric—to bring all of these things just from a place of being a fan of those people and that music. How I found out about fashion was from house music culture. You know, these Black kids from the South Side of Chicago or these gay kids would read L’Uomo Vogue and look to what was happening in New York and they would come to the club in Ferré and Montana and Versace. That was my form of education before I even bought magazines—seeing Black kids in the clubs.

KJ: The Music Box scene and just reading about all the different types of style that people wore was the inspiration for my first graduate collection.

HD: I want to do a project that celebrates all the different dress codes that were subcultures from house music because there were so many. And that’s the thing I struggle with today in fashion. I always love fashion from an inspirational instead of an aspirational point because I love it when people use clothing to express themselves and find their people and find their community.

KJ: I like to go right to the original source, always. Music is such an important part of the show and I think very carefully about what’s chosen for it. I mean, that Supreme Louis Vuitton show with Chez Damier, the “Can You Feel It” track, which everyone freaks out about still.

HD: I think my favorite was your last runway show for Vuitton, “We’re Not Gonna Be Shady, Just Fierce!”, because it felt like the most honest soundtrack I’ve done with you.

KJ: It’s just that mixing of everything. I’m obsessed with New York in the ’80s. You look at the downtown scene and how the art, the music, the fashion was just one thing together. What I really admire about that is no one was doing it for the money. Money is a byproduct of success; they were doing it for the love of what they do.

HD: It’s so funny you say that. I haven’t been able to buy things from that time within the last five years. I mean, up until five years ago I didn’t have any fucking money that I was able to surround myself with all these artifacts from that time, from Chicago and New York, and London, too. There’s this book that I really want to get but it’s out of print, of all the club kids from the early ’80s, and it’s super hard to find.

KJ: The Chicago thing, it’s impossible to find anything. I’ve got some pictures of the Music Box and that’s it. And then the flyers, which I got on eBay years ago, and that was by chance.

HD: Well, that’s the problem with a lot of subcultures. A lot of the New York gay scene—Black gay scene—was undocumented, too. I don’t see any pictures from Tracks, very few pictures from Better Days. There’s only a few pictures really even from the Garage. If you think about it, that was from 1977 to 1987, and in that ten years you really don’t see that many pictures, other than the Keith Haring stuff or the Tina Paul stuff.

KJ: Yeah, or in The Booth.

HD: Or Bill Bernstein from The Booth. I think the difference between now and then is that people were living it and not documenting it, like they are today. Every second is documented today. I think people now are living with the image of the experience instead of living the experience.

KJ: I do think that is what’s a bit sad. It’s like the fun goes because people can’t let their hair down because they’re worried about how they look. It seems to have almost stopped inspiration happening, in a way.

HD: If the only reason for doing something is to get liked, it’s pretty sad [laughs]. As someone who is around a lot of famous people, I wish I could tell people, some of your mates are more exciting than the people that are famous. I like people that achieve fame through merit or contribution.

KJ: Yeah, I just don’t think to see it any other way. I graduated twenty years ago in March, and that feels like a second. And I think about all the things I’ve done in that time and I still can’t believe what I do for a living. But I really appreciate it and I enjoy it.

HD: This pandemic has really brought into focus how lucky I am. When people ask what success means for me, I say, one: I survived as a trans person of color, and two: I have been able to live my life as an artist. Money and other stuff are nice perks, but the fact that I can get up every day and choose my day and not have my day chosen for me, and that people respond to what I love and what I want to put out in the world, and to be able to collaborate with people like yourself and Kenny . . . that’s the success, not the stuff that comes after. And now, to be the first trans woman of color to guest edit an international fashion publication, it’s just so great for my community.

KJ: That’s a lasting legacy—it’s historic. I can’t wait to see what else you’ve done.

HD: I can’t wait to see what else I’m doing too, cause this pandemic needs to stop! [laughs].

NS: Obviously you’re both in industries that really rely on a lot of travel and showmanship and an audience. How has that adjustment been for you both?

KJ: For me, we went from doing proper shows to digital. I didn’t want anyone to get sick from working, that was for sure. You have to really just go with the flow. It must be harder for Honey, because you need that reaction! I get that reaction a few times a year, you’re like that virtually every night!

HD: That instant connection to people has been completely wiped away. Not only for DJs but every live artist that relies on touring to live, and not just financially, but for sustenance as an artist. I highly doubt someone’s going to look back at this time and say, “I had the most incredible stream of my life with my friends,” [laughs]. I didn’t stream for a long time because I have a problem with everything being so consumed. And in today’s age, most people don’t want to pay for art, they don’t want to pay for music, they don’t want to pay for movies and so, it was a constant struggle: how do I stay modern as a musician without having it be so consumable and disposable? Because clubs—these are where people meet life partners and have life-changing experiences and make memories that last forever.

KJ: I have a lot of information in my house, which has made it fine for me to do research for my collections, because I’m working on about six at the moment. Fendi is actually quite a hard brand to research because there’s not so many books on it. The Italian Vogue archive is amazing but trying to do research in lockdown. . . I’m missing Tokyo; I’m missing going to places that make me think in different ways.

HD: It’s really hard as a musician too. When I was in London earlier this year, I went to some jazz clubs. Hearing different music in different environments or going to hear different DJs. . . it’s really difficult because you can’t push music forward or your art forward from a bubble. To feel the bass or to see how other people’s bodies react to different frequencies in music, you just can’t get that in front of a fucking computer looking at YouTube.

KJ: And also with loud music, you hear different parts of the music. And I like music loud.

HD: I love music loud. I like everything loud [laughs]. Except loud people.

NS: Honey, is there a favorite outfit of Kim’s that you’ve worn?

HD: I can tell you a favorite thing that Kim has gifted me and there’s only one that exists in the world. When we did the Supreme show, he made me a Louis Vuitton 12-inch record bag. And I remember when Helmut Lang did one for Frankie Knuckles back in the day. So, the fact that I have my own—because I was super envious that Frankie had one from Helmut Lang that he had made at Vuitton—Kim made me one. It has a red handle, and it’s my most treasured thing.

NS: Being friends all these years, is their specific stuff you go to each other for?

KJ: Anything, anything, anything that has to do with life.

HD: Ditto.

KJ: It’s weird the lives that we live, and it’s good to have other people who live the same lives that you can talk to. I’m very proud of everything I’ve achieved in my life and I’m proud of everything Honey has achieved in her life. We’ve both overcome a lot of stuff. Honey has dealt with a lot more as I always tell her, and I think that it’s a support network. And that’s really important to me.

HD: It’s just pure friendship. And trust. honest, pure friendship, which is priceless. We go to each other for friendship. And comfort. And support. And love.

Everything You Need to Know About The 2021 Met Gala And Costume Institute Exhibition

“Though today is the first Monday in May, we are not rolling out the red carpet on the front steps,” says the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Marina Kellen French Director Max Hollein. But that doesn’t preclude the release of exciting new information about the Costume Institute’s two-part 2021 exhibit “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion” and “In America: An Anthology of Fashion.” Hollein was joined by Eva Chen of Instagram and Andrew Bolton, the Wendy Yu Curator in Charge of the Costume Institute, this morning at a virtual press conference that revealed all the details about the upcoming exhibits and galas.

Part one of the exhibition, “A Lexicon of Fashion,” will open September 18 at the Anna Wintour Costume Center at the Met, marking the Costume Institute’s 75th anniversary. An intimate gala to celebrate the exhibit’s opening will take place on September 13, cochaired by Timothée Chalamet, Billie Eilish, Amanda Gorman, and Naomi Osaka with honorary chairs Tom Ford, Instagram’s Adam Mosseri, and Anna Wintour. The exhibit will be organized to resemble a home, with intersecting walls and rooms that will establish what Bolton calls “a new vocabulary that’s more relevant and more reflective of the times in which we’re living.”

“Traditionally American fashion has been described in terms of the American tenets of simplicity, practicality, and functionality. Fashion’s more emotional qualities have tended to be reserved for more European fashion,” Bolton says. “In part one we’ll be reconsidering this perception by reestablishing a modern lexicon of fashion based on the emotional qualities of dress.” The many rooms in this part of the exhibit will be titled to reflect the personal and emotional relationship we have to fashion: “Well-Being” for the kitchen galleries, “Aspiration” for the office, and “Trust,” the living room, for example.

In pushing the human connections to our clothes, Bolton is writing a new history of American style that focuses less on sportswear and Seventh Avenue dressmakers, instead framing designers as creators, innovators, and artists. “Taken together these qualities will compromise a modern vocabulary of American fashion that prioritizes values, emotions, and sentiments over the sportswear principles of realism, rationalism, and pragmatism,” he says. Pieces from Christopher John Rogers, Sterling Ruby, Conner Ives, Prabal Gurung, and Andre Walker feature in part one of the exhibition. Ruby’s Veil Flag, a short film presented at Paris Fashion Week, was recreated at the Met, and its central piece, a denim American flag, will open the show. Director Melina Matsoukas will also create a film for the exhibit that will evolve over the course of its run.

Part two, “An Anthology of Fashion,” will open May 5, 2022, in the period rooms of the museum’s American Wing. In this, it’s a natural coda to the museum’s trio of in situ Costume Institute exhibits that began with 2004’s Dangerous Liaisons: Fashion and Furniture in the 18th Century held in the French period rooms and 2006’s AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion set in the English period rooms. “In its conceptualization, part two actually preceded part one and actually inspired and informed it. For many years now we’ve been examining our collection to uncover hidden or untold stories with a view to complicating or problematizing monolithic interpretations of fashion. Our intention for part two is to bring these stories together in an anthology that challenges perceived histories and offers alternative readings of American fashion,” Bolton explains.

He and the museum’s curatorial team will work with American film directors to create cinematic scenes within each room that depict a different history of American fashion. Pieces from the midcentury couturier Ann Lowe and Stephen Burrows will feature in part two of the exhibition. “Key themes will include the emergence of an identifiable American style and the rise of the named designer with an individual aesthetic vision,” says Bolton. A second Met Gala will take place on May 2, 2022, to mark the opening of An Anthology of American Fashion. The exhibit will run through September 5, 2022, and is made possible by Instagram and with support from Condé Nast.

“For me, this past year confirmed what I’ve been thinking already—that American fashion is undergoing another renaissance,” Bolton says. We’ll see the fruits of fashion’s rebirth at the Met.

You Aren’t Tripping: Fungi Are Taking Over Fashion

Spring fashion is usually about florals, pastels, and maybe a tropical print here and there. But today’s trending motif is…mushrooms. They’re sprouting everywhere: on Bella Hadid’s T-shirts, embroidered on sparkly Ashish dresses, and carved from opals on Brent Neale necklaces. Mushrooms are even inspiring our homes, with mushroom mugs and lawn sculptures trending on TikTok and cremini-shaped desk lamps fetching thousands on 1stdibs. A vintage Murano will cost you a month’s rent, but come on—it’s so cute!

For some of us, that’s reason enough to fall down the rabbit hole. Mushrooms remind us of childhood adventures in the woods, books like Alice in Wonderland, and films including Willy Wonka and Fantasia. As a print or sculpture, the shape is evocative of the natural world, but funkier and less ordinary than a flower. There’s an implied grooviness too, recalling the magic mushrooms of the 1960s and ’70s, decades that designers and 20-somethings alike can’t stop referencing.

There’s more to the story than simply aesthetics though. The health, self-care, and climate change benefits of mushrooms are uncannily relevant: Wellness obsessives are buying reishi-laced skin-care products to calm inflammation, stirring chaga into their coffee to boost immunity, and full-on tripping to treat anxiety and depression. We’ll literally be wearing our mushroom obsession once Hermès and Stella McCartney’s mushroom “leather” products—billed as low-impact alternatives to animal hides—go mainstream. (Until then, you might consider getting on the wait list for Eden Power Corp’s bucket hat, made from a single—enormous!—amadou mushroom.)

Much of our interest in mushrooms can be chalked up to a desire to reconnect with the outside world, a natural reaction after our year in lockdown. But in my opinion, the story isn’t really mushrooms at all—it’s mycelium. Stay with me here: Mycelium is the underground network of thread-like branches growing beneath mushrooms and fungi, connecting every living plant and tree and facilitating the exchange of nutrients, breaking down decaying matter, regenerating the earth, and even sequestering carbon. It’s now understood that mycelium helps plants and trees “communicate” and support each other; in the documentary Fantastic Fungi, mycelium is aptly described as nature’s internet, or the “wood wide web.” It’s just as vast: For every step we take, there’s roughly 300 miles of mycelium stretching below the surface.

Mycelium has been used to clean up oil spills and could even become a new, biodegradable construction material. But it’s mycelium’s more poetic story of harmony, connection, and balance that could really transform how we live on earth—and it’s what’s resonating most with designers. “[It’s an idea that] especially touched me,” Iris van Herpen said in January, “because I think the last year has been, for me, and I guess all of us, [one] of isolation and separation. And of course it’s really beautiful to look at nature and how nature connects in a very similar way [to] how we communicate.”

Inspired by Merlin Sheldrake’s book Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Van Herpen’s spring 2021 couture collection was aswirl with hyphae-like embellishments and more obvious nods to mushrooms, like a fanned dress reminiscent of a chanterelle. Her fellow couturier Rahul Mishra presented his own, more literal take on fungi: His spring 2021 lineup featured minidresses comprised entirely of hand-embroidered mushrooms and flowing gowns layered to mimic shelves of fungi sprouting from trees. Cute they were not; these were unbelievably intricate, handmade works of art that most of us will never see or wear IRL. Instead, Mishra hopes they’ll inspire us to rethink our relationship with the outside world and let nature guide our decisions. “Mushrooms create rebirth in a real sense,” he said. “They’re a masterpiece of engineering all on their own.”

Saint Laurent’s Menswear-Inspired Winter 2021 Show

For his Winter 2021 Saint Laurent film, Anthony Vaccarello chose an arctic setting to show his louche wardrobe for the post-lockdown climate. Here, British Vogue’s fashion critic Anders Christian Madsen breaks down five things to know about the show.

The virtual show took place in an arctic setting

Titled Where the Silver Wind Blows, the virtual Saint Laurent show was superimposed within the tundra of the arctic wilderness, and scored with music by Max Richter. It followed last season’s similar idea – where models walked atop the ridge of a desert dune – seizing the limitations created by the pandemic to imagine a fashion show in an impossible setting.

The silhouette borrowed from the ’60s

Anthony Vaccarello drew on Yves Saint Laurent’s ’60s archives for his post-lockdown proposal, infusing his go-to skinny and skimpy silhouette with the classic fabrics of menswear in a heritage expression, which evolved the bourgeois codes the designer has been reviving at Saint Laurent: boucle and tweed jackets, patterned vests, and knitted check cardigans paired with long shorts and jeans.

The colours were opulent

Evoking retro glam, Vaccarello injected his winter wools and knits with opulent colours and metallics, hinting at a post-lockdown exuberance predicted by many designers this season. His louche nightclub sensibility reached a zenith in faux fur-trimmed knitted swimming costumes that fused the extremes of two worlds – perhaps a nod to the transitional time in which we find ourselves.

It was all about legs

Things got extra-short in the hemline department, continuing the season’s affinity for legs on display. Next to a golden boucle romper, Vaccarello paired his tiny hot pants and mini-mini-skirts with thigh-high ’80s leather boots. On the way, he saluted the midriff, too, in little closed bolero numbers with faux fur cuffs.

It reflected the ambiguity of the post-lockdown wardrobe

The eveningwear tackled a covered-up silhouette in a plumed sack dress and a boule cape, and the very opposite: a transparent black negligee dress with a bra element fashioned solely from the underwire and a chiffon flower. It was a bold look for a return to the real world, but one that might evoke the dressed-down comfort of those days in lockdown.

Princess Diana’s Wedding Dress Will Go On Display In Kensington Palace

Diana, Princess Of Wales’s wedding dress is to go on display at Kensington Palace. The gown, worn by the 20-year-old Princess at her 1981 wedding to Prince Charles, will be the crowning glory of a seven-month long exhibition, Royal Style in the Making, in the Orangery at the Princess of Wales’s former home. Forty years on from its debut, the silk-taffeta, puff-sleeve gown remains perhaps the most famous bridal gown of all time.

 
When will Princess Diana’s wedding dress go on display?

The wedding gown will go on display from 3 June 2021, and will be open to visitors until 2 January 2022, as a part of a collection of royal pieces – many never displayed in public before now – that illustrate the relationship between the monarchy and the couturiers who have shaped their wardrobes. The exhibition is set to “explore the unique relationship between fashion designer and royal client”, a statement from Historical Royal Palaces reads. “The exhibition will offer visitors a sneak peek into the rarefied world of the atelier, unpicking how some of Britain’s finest designers rose to the challenge of creating clothing destined for the world stage.” Other pieces displayed alongside the Princess of Wales’s dress are expected to include a toile made for Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mother, for the 1937 coronation of King George VI, and pieces designed by courtier Madame Handley-Seymour for Queen Mary, the Queen’s paternal grandmother, in the early 20th century.

 
How can you see Princess Diana’s wedding gown?

Tickets for Royal Style in the Making are available to purchase now, and start at £23 for adults, with concessions available. The fee also covers access to other exhibitions taking place at the Palace, including the King and Queen’s state apartments.

 
When was Princess Diana’s wedding gown last on display?

Previously the dress, which boasts a 25-foot train embroidered with Carrickmacross lace originally belonging to Queen Mary, featured in a touring exhibition, Diana: A Celebration, before becoming part of a display at the Spencer family’s ancestral home, Althorp House, where she is buried.

Who owns Princess Diana’s wedding gown?

Following her death in 1997, the wedding gown was bequeathed to her sons, the Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Sussex, who have granted permission for its appearance 40 years after their parents married at St Paul’s Cathedral on 29 July 1981. It wasn’t until 2014, after Prince Harry’s 30th birthday, that it entered their estate on the Princess’s request, and it is believed to be her younger son’s. William received her Ceylon sapphire and diamond engagement ring, now worn by the Duchess of Cambridge.

Why is Princess Diana’s wedding dress going on display now?

The princess would have celebrated her 60th birthday on 1 July this year, and the exhibition of her wedding gown is one of a number of special arrangements scheduled to mark the milestone. It’s expected that her sons will reunite in the summer to unveil a statue of their late mother, created by sculptor Ian Rank-Broadley and commissioned on the 20th anniversary of her death in 2017, to be erected in the gardens of Kensington Palace.

Who designed Princess Diana’s dress?

Described by exhibition curator at Historic Royal Palaces as “show-stopping”, Diana’s dress was designed by former husband-and-wife duo, David and Elizabeth Emmanuel. Shrouded in secrecy at the time, the dress went on to shape bridal trends. “We had no guidelines or instructions, so we came up with this amazing, completely OTT gown that we knew would stand out on the steps of St Paul’s,” Elizabeth Emanuel told British Vogue in 2020.

Billie Fans Will Pay Close Attention To Her Burberry Look In British Vogue

Billie Eilish revealed last year that she had ticked getting a tattoo off her bucket list, but added that her fans would never get to see it. Fast forward to this spring, and Eilish’s British Vogue cover story shows that the pop star has had a change of heart. Wearing a custom-made corseted Burberry body and sheer Mugler stockings, a slither of the inking snaking up her right hip is visible. Cue a mass social-media meltdown from her legions of young fans.

The shoot, styled by Dena Giannini, is new ground for the 19-year-old. Inspired by Betty Brosmer, Horst’s illusionist beauty shots and the stockinged models captured by Elmer Batters, Billie’s “classic, old-timey pin-up” moment is aeons away from the rap-influenced couture coords that have become her signature. “I’ve literally never done anything in this realm at all,” Eilish tells Laura Snapes in the June issue. “Y’know, besides when I’m alone and shit.”

Her transformation – complete with exquisite Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood and Balmain bodices – coincides with a chilling new song that confronts abusers who exploit underage girls, and sees Billie firmly take control of her own narrative. “Don’t make me not a role model because you’re turned on by me,” she tells Snapes. “Showing your body and showing your skin – or not – should not take any respect away from you.”

This level of confidence from a teenager who has become a woman in the public eye (she burst onto the scene at the age of 13 after uploading “Ocean Eyes” – recorded with her brother Finneas in her bedroom – to Soundcloud) is admirable, and a testament to her fanbase (82.5 million followers and counting). Her mantra going into her twenties? “It’s all about what makes you feel good. If you want to get surgery, go get surgery. If you want to wear a dress that somebody thinks that you look too big wearing, f**k it – if you feel like you look good, you look good.” Her bold tattoo, a signifier of strength for only herself, is a beacon of hope for anyone still on that path.

Felipe Oliveira Baptista And Kenzo Part Ways After Two Years

Felipe Oliveira Baptista’s tenure at Kenzo is coming to a close. After two years at the LVMH-owned brand, the Portuguese designer will step down on 30 June. Where the brand goes next is an open question.

For fans of Oliveira Baptista’s work, the news of his departure comes as a surprise. With most of his time at Kenzo marked by the Covid pandemic – his first show took place in February 2020, when attendance in Paris was already waning – Oliveria Baptista had to think innovatively and chart a new path for the brand from the start. Speaking with British Vogue in September of last year, he lamented the situation, describing the digital fashion show experience as “poorer” than a physical one.

Even with the cards stacked against him, Oliveira Baptista managed to bring a new sensitivity and grace to Kenzo, describing his goal to make “the real, desirable clothes lacking in fashion today.” Looking to the brand’s archives, the designer abandoned the emphasis on saleable streetwear pieces like tiger tees and sweatshirts that his predecessors Humberto Lim and Carol Leon pushed, and instead focused on the wearability of founder Kenzo Takada’s proposition. Bold silhouettes and lively colours were the backbone of Oliveira Baptista’s three collections, ideas that married well with 2020’s new emphasis on comfort. His recent autumn/winter 2021 video was a highlight of a mostly digital fashion season. Models danced wrapped in blankets with moon boots on their feet and critics lauded it as a success.

Before his death from Covid-19, founder Kenzo Takada also praised Oliveira Baptista’s vision for the label. “Felipe very successfully brought his own identity into the brand,” Takada told British Vogue. “It brings Kenzo to a new creative level.”