Vogue USA 01.2022

CHANGE AGENT

“I could come from
a place of conviction

and say, This is
genuinely bad.”
Haugen wears a Max
Mara shirt. In this
story: hair, Roxane
Attard; makeup,

Marie Bruce.

Fashion Editor:
Molly Haylor.

make its algorithm smarter. When never met Zuckerberg but calls him up the election for at least four more
a Facebook recruiter got in touch, “Mark”—perhaps thinks that she years,” she jokes.) An investigative
Haugen said she was only interested could manage the ship better than reporter from the Journal, Jeff Hor-
in the company’s “integrity” side (as he has. “I think when I got in there witz, had already contacted her as
opposed to its “growth” side)—and and I saw how bad it was, I could part of a wide swath of outreach to
specifically wanted to work on civic come from a place of conviction and Facebook employees, and cautious-
disinformation, the “fake news” that say, This is genuinely bad,” she says. ly, she started talking to him. “I have
goes viral on the social network. She A couple weeks after our dinner, at a never seen a source work harder in
said a friend had been radicalized via conference in Lisbon, she says that my life,” says Horwitz. Some of what
Facebook, turning toward the alt- Facebook would be best served by ended up in his series were topics he
right during the Trump era, and so Zuckerberg stepping down. asked her about, like the alarming
the work was personal. She focused material on Instagram and teenage
on “narrowcasting”—the knotty “We have every commercial and body image. (“I knew there was some-
problem of what to do about false moral incentive to try to give the thing there, and she came back to me
information that goes viral to a group maximum number of people as much and said, ‘Damn straight there is,’”
of, say, 50,000 rather than millions. of a positive experience as possible he says.) But much of what Haugen
on Facebook,” responds a spokes- documented—particularly the prob-
At the time, Haugen held faith in person when I contact the company lems Facebook was aware of in the
the potential of the company to bring about Haugen. “That’s why we take Global South—were priorities of hers.
people together and enable positive steps to keep people safe even if it
social movements—and actually, she impacts our bottom line. To say we Through this period, she was living
still thinks this. “I really believe that turn a blind eye to feedback ignores in Iowa, in the house she’d grown up
social media has the power to do these investments, which include over in, doing a lot of Pilates, and trying to
amazing things in our lives,” she tells $5 billion we’re on track to spend this stop her at-risk parents (both scien-
me. “I hold a slight fantasy that one year alone on safety and security, as tists) from going to the grocery store
day Facebook will rehire me to work well as the 40,000 people working on as COVID rates soared. She worked
on something in integrity.”And adds: these issues at Facebook.” from the sunroom, where her moth-
“I feel a huge amount of empathy for er, Alice Haugen, could sometimes
the people inside the company who H augen may be the overhear her conversations. At din-
are very distressed right now.” most prominent ner, they’d talk through her daily
whistleblower in frustrations. “One of the things that
Natalia Villalobos, the head of Facebook’s his- had her concerned,” says Alice, “was
developer inspiration and inclusion at tory, but she’s not Ethiopia,” a country currently in the
Google, has been friends with Hau- the first. “This is a midst of a civil war. Haugen believed
gen since they both worked on Goo- company that has done a very good Facebook didn’t have the language
gle+ more than a decade ago. She job of disguising itself as a humani- capabilities to fully moderate there.
was shocked to see her friend’s name tarian enterprise,” says Kevin Roose,
trending on Twitter when her Octo- a tech columnist at The New York “I think the most important thing
ber interview with 60 Minutes went Times. “The problem with telling for whistleblowers is to have one per-
live, but she’s been happy—if not employees you’re a humanitarian son you feel like you can be honest
surprised—at the approach Haugen tech company is that some of them with,” Haugen says. Alice, who’s
has taken. “It feels like someone is will want you to live up to that.” As ordained as an Episcopal priest,
speaking our language to a new set of a result, Roose says, “there’s been a helped counsel her. “I could talk to
ears. She’s helping people understand whistle chorus from Menlo Park for my parents and say, ‘I think people
how and why things are built like they much of the last decade. All the worst are going to die.’ ” (Responds the
are,” Villalobos says. “She’s filling a things that have been said about Face- Meta spokesperson: “We have ded-
knowledge gap that’s so vital.” book in the last 10 years have been icated teams working to stop abuse
said by Facebook employees.” on our platform in countries where
“There are probably 200 people there is heightened risk of conflict
in the industry who understand It’s a chorus that has included and violence. We also have global
how algorithmic consumer products high-level employees who were close teams with native speakers reviewing
work as well as I do,” Haugen tells to Zuckerberg, like Sean Parker and content in over 70 languages along
me. “There’s just not a lot of people Chris Hughes. The reason Haugen’s with experts in humanitarian and
who do the AI side and the human criticisms hit so hard? “She brought human rights issues.”)
side.” It’s hard to tell whether she’s out incontrovertible evidence that
giving me a clear-eyed assessment of people at Facebook were talking Horwitz says Haugen initially
her own qualifications, or a bit of cru- about its problems,” says Roose. wanted to stay behind the scenes,
sading grandiosity. Probably a little of “Receipts speak louder than words.” but it soon became clear to her that
both. It occurs to me that Zuckerberg Facebook would be able to deter-
is nearly an exact peer of Haugen’s: Haugen says she became disillu- mine exactly who she was, and that
they’re the same age, both entered col- sioned when the company dissolved she could be effective as an advocate.
lege the same year, both with software its civic integrity team following the Haugen seemed determined to coor-
engineering backgrounds. I wonder 2020 American election. (“We’re not dinate her own rollout, managing
to myself whether Haugen—who has going to get regulated for messing it as tightly as she would a product

54

launch. She got in touch with a law- a TED Talk–ish way of introducing I was sick. Because in our culture, we

yer at the organization Whistleblower explanatory examples by telling you shame people for that, right?” She

Aid, who helped her obtain protec- she’s going to offer an example, and was also married at the time—to a

tion from the SEC and worked with still remembers exactly where she colleague at Google—and was going

a PR firm staffed by ex-Obama-ites, got into college (MIT and Caltech, through a separation. “I lost a cou-

making her old social media accounts though she ended up going to the new- ple of years when I was like, I don’t

private and launching a polished ly formed Olin College) and where she know…” she trails off. “I was alive. I

personal website. After the splashy didn’t (Yale—she was wait-listed, and succeeded. I succeeded in not dying.”

multipart Journal series and podcast still regrets indicating political science Haugen has a boyfriend she met

appeared, she passed documents for her major rather than engineering). on the island—they were roommates,

along to reporters from almost 20 But it’s clear that she thinks of she says—and the two treat food as

news outlets, under strict embargo herself as a humanist, rather than an organizing principle in their lives.

instructions and a request that they simply an engineer. She misses San She’s gluten- and dairy-free; he’s keto.

coordinate coverage as a consortium. Francisco’s participatory art scene, a They met through the cryptocurrency

(One journalist, semi-resentfully, cousin to the Burning Man scene, and community, and his support has been

named the Slack room where said remains annoyed that some on the left crucial for her. She texted him when

coordination happened “Apparently have painted her as a techno-optimist. all the attention started. “I was like,

We’re a Consortium Now.”) ‘Hey, so I want to give you an

As we talk, Haugen slowly “She brought out incontrovertible out. We haven’t been dating
sips a cocktail called Global that long. At any point, if it

Warming—the ice cube con- evidence that people at gets to be too much, you can
tains chili, so as it melts, the Facebook were talking about its tap out. Like, I celebrate your
drink gets hotter—and tells joy, right?’”He didn’t tap out.

me that she used to be into problems,” says Kevin Roose. He’s spent his share of time in
mixology, in her 20s. That’s “Receipts speak louder than words” the weirder parts of the inter-
also when Haugen started go- net, and wasn’t intimidated.

ing to Burning Man, where She describes him as playful.

she still typically serves as a ranger, “I don’t think the solution is technol- “I feel like that’s part of the fun of the

the festival equivalent of a Boy Scout, ogy,” she says. “Part of what we need crypto world,” she says. “These are

helping tripped-out attendees get is to have people see each other, with people who are in different boxes,”

their bearings. empathy and compassion.” people who’ve found success without

Haugen tells me about her upbring- That’s what she feels for Zucker- Harvard MBAs or corporate jobs.

ing, how her parents’ romance was berg. “Can you imagine having your As we talk, Haugen maintains

solidified when her father bought entire adult identity wrapped up in intense eye contact, like a Dale

her mother a color TV, so they could something? Like, this is the only thing Carnegie trick, and when we say

watch Life on Earth, the BBC sci- you’ve done? Can you imagine how goodbye, she shakes my hand in an

ence series, in its proper glory. Her hard it would be to admit that it has old-fashioned businessman manner

father ran a virology lab, and Haugen hurt people?” that’s somehow out of step with her

spent her childhood happily running O ur next course has generation of wavers and huggers.
around in oversized freebie T-shirts arrived—wild rab- I’m reminded of how clear she was
from his conferences, decorated with bit and gluten-free during her congressional testimony,
things like herpes virus. She was an gnocchi for Haugen. exuding the kind of sensible mod-
achiever, skipping a grade in middle “Oh, beautiful,” eration both parties seemed able to
school and joining the debate team she says. She loves get behind. It’s not hard to imagine
at her high school. She also did some a political future for Haugen, who

riflery as a teenager, and tells me that to cook, in part because it helps her says she’s mostly voted Democrat-

she harbors a dream of competing in manage her celiac disease, which she ic, though she describes herself as

the biathlon at the Winter Olympics, was diagnosed with in her mid-20s an “Eisenhower Republican,” and

despite never having tried the sport. while she was at Google. That was a rhapsodizes about how he integrated

The team is full of older athletes, she hard period in her life: She describes the military. But she says that a tradi-

says, and she’s ridden a bunch of a severe autoimmune reaction, unex- tional political career is off the table

PRODUCED BY TOGETHER ASSOCIATES. 100-mile bike rides. “I looked at the plained weight loss and gain, puz- for her, in large part because of how

qualifications. They haven’t filled the zling neuropathic pain, and a visit to much effort she puts in managing her

at-large slots for years. So all I have to the hospital for symptoms of malnu- celiac. The touring will be stressful

do is get reasonable.” trition. Her work deteriorated, and enough on that front.

At 5 feet 10 inches, with blonde hair, she said Google placed her on a per- She thinks there’s probably a book

blue eyes, and a heart-shaped, strong- formance-improvement plan, which in her future. She also dreams about

jawed face, Haugen looks a little like she feared was a corporate glide path an open-source social network for

Reese Witherspoon’s much taller toward being forced out. “I should students of all ages to learn and

cousin—and there’s a hint of Tracy have gone on medical leave, but I experiment on—think of it as a lab

Flick in her polished delivery. She has was young, and I felt ashamed that for aspiring C O N TIN U ED O N PAG E 8 8

55

FERTILE
IMAGINATION

At Lismore in Waterford
County, Ireland, head
gardener Darren Topps
was “to create a garden
that looked like it had
been neglected for 100
years,” he recalls.

Wild, Wild
Country

Brimming with romance and flourishing as never
before, the gardens of storied Lismore Castle in Ireland

offer sanctuary and surprise in equal measure.
By Hamish Bowles. Photographed by Simon Watson.

I reland’s Lismore Castle,
built in 1185 on the site of a
seventh-century monastery,
lays claim to being one of
the most romantically sited
places in a country where
myth and magic lurk at every turn.
The castle crests a craggy hill com-
manding a view of a bright, rain-fed
green valley, while in the distance,
the mist-shrouded Knockmealdown
Mountains loom. Sir Walter Raleigh
was once a tenant, and Robert Boyle,
heralded as the “father of modern
chemistry,” was born here in 1627,
but the castle’s destiny changed in
the mid–18th century, when it was
included in the dowry that the fab-
ulously wealthy Lady Charlotte
Boyle brought to her marriage with
the Marquess of Hartington, future
fourth Duke of Devonshire.

It was their grandson, the sixth
“Bachelor Duke,” a great collector,
builder, and aesthete, who became
passionate about Lismore, and
commissioned the Gothic Revival
architect Augustus Pugin to add fan-
ciful crenellated towers and an ersatz
medieval banqueting hall. He also
employed Sir Joseph Paxton, the gar-
dener and engineer, to create formal
terraced gardens. Today, those gar-
dens are flourishing as never before.

“I first went to Lismore when
William and I were friends,” recalls
Laura Burlington, whose husband
is the son of the 12th Duke. “I can
remember going for the weekend,
and I couldn’t really get over the
walls—full of moss and lichen and
Mexican fleabane.” Dear Reader, she
married him, and in the early 2000s,
the couple was entrusted with man-
aging this bewitching place.

From the beginning, William
Burlington was keen to engage the
public with the castle, but, as Laura
notes, Pugin’s embellishments were
conceived “to look much grander
than the actual footprint of the build-
ing inside,” which meant that if the
house were to be opened to the pub-
lic, “we’d all be in the same space.”

The couple are passionate about
art, however, and in 2005 William
converted a wing into Lismore Castle
Arts, an award-winning gallery. Their
collecting extends to the gardens,
with a love seat by Franz West in a
color the artist cryptically describes

58

ANY WHICH WAY

A grassy footpath
slices through the
orchard, planted with
apple trees and a
riot of oxeye daisies.

OUTER REACHES

left: The Sundial Garden, with oak benches by the artist
Henry Brudenell-Bruce. above: From the castle gardens,
a view of the local village’s St. Carthage’s Cathedral.

as “English pink,” and a tempera- Devonshire, planted in abundance. on it—rather than being blown away
mental Roger Hiorns flame piece, In this mountain-cradled microcli- by the gardens themselves. It felt
Vauxhall, 2003. “It’s nice having some mate, exotic tree ferns flourish, and like it needed a kind of shot in the
art in the garden,” says Laura, “but salvias and dahlias can be left over arm, especially in the Upper Gar-
sometimes it can be altogether too the winter, cosseted by a dry mulch. den, which was quite formal with box
much. I’d rather have flowers.” hedging everywhere.”
A s Laura admits, the
Those gardens, some 10 acres, are gardens’ fortunes When the invidious box blight
open to visitors and are arranged changed with the destroyed those hedges, however, it
on different levels. The walled Upper appointment of opened up possibilities. “You can hide
Garden, originally built as a kitch- head gardener Dar- a multitude of sins behind box hedg-
en garden in the 17th century, is the ren Topps in 2013. ing,” explains Topps. “Once you’ve
oldest cultivated example in Ireland, Topps was fresh from the Eden Proj- taken that away, there’s nowhere to
and the Lower Garden, in turn, ect in Cornwall, where a series of hide. But that then afforded us the
was nourished with mountain soil diverse biomes are contained beneath opportunity to spill over the edge
that the sixth Duke introduced giant geodesic domes and where and sort of blur the lines. There’s still
so that he could plant rhododen- the Gulf Stream provides a similar plenty of gardening that goes on, but
drons, magnolias, and peonies, the microclimate. When he first visited it was just to give it that kind of lost-
spoils of Britain’s ever-expanding the Lismore gardens, “I think I was garden feel, a bit more romanticized.”
empire. It bursts into glory in the struck more by the potential of the
spring, beautified with more mag- place—and obviously Lord and Lady “He had so many ideas,” Laura
nolias that William’s grandmother, Burlington’s desire to put their mark enthuses of Topps. “I really want-
the engaging Mitford sister Debo ed the garden to be deeply, deeply
romantic and tumbling roses, like

60

MIXED BLESSINGS
above and below: Self-sown Shirley
poppies, lady’s mantle, Queen Anne’s
lace, sweet cicely, and other plantings.

an organized garden that had just
all been let go wild. As my father-in-
law would say, ‘You let the whiskers
grow a bit.’”

Much of the formal lawn has been
given over to wildflower meadow,
and no pesticides have been used
now for several years. The planting of
annuals and biennials “keeps it really
dynamic,” notes Topps. “Every year
is a slightly different thing.” Mindful
of the walled gardens’ history, Topps
is also careful to include “a lot of edi-
bles—mulberries, or pears, or apples,”
among the ornamental displays.

The Burlingtons also decided to
change the areas surrounding the
house itself, all lawn and gravel at the
time. The brief, as Topps recalls, “was
to create a garden that looked like it
had been neglected for 100 years. With
no spraying, we’ve allowed things to

61

OUT ON A LIMB

Untreated by pesticides, a wildflower
meadow grows dense and lush.

seed into the driveway, and it’s just the to have back,” notes Topps, who also
car tracks that are keeping it clear.” advocated for a natural swimming
pool “with no chemicals, and plants
Now, says Laura, “it’s just a mul- that do all the filtration,” to evoke
tisensory, dreamy place. It’s so rich, the memory of Adele Astaire, the
and it’s kind of an explosion of won- sister and former dancing partner
der. I’m always amazed to see the new of Fred, who optimistically installed
planting and the way Darren puts one in the grounds after she had mar-
things together.” Topps’s vision for ried Lord Charles Cavendish in 1933.
the gardens at Lismore has stirred
William Burlington’s interest too. He During the worst of the COVID
returned from Berlin, for example, pandemic, the gardeners worked
with two pieces of the Berlin Wall hard to provide fruits and vegetables
in a flatbed truck. “You just come for the community while the gardens
across them,” says Laura, “two rath- themselves became something of a
er strange monolithic objects. And sanctuary for the locals. “Everyone
William wanted to make an area that was itching for days out and some-
was more for wild play and explo- thing to do,” Topps notes, “and
ration, and it’s got masses of ferns because there’s such variety there’s
and things you can swing off. Luckily, something for everyone.”
not too many people have damaged
themselves on it.” “I think the garden can mean so
many things to different people,”
When an ancient tree was cleft by adds Laura, “and, I think, having
a storm, Topps repurposed the tim- walked through the garden and been
ber into a pergola for a seating area, in this very wild, beautiful place, it
and projects include the yearlong also has the effect of making you
renovation of the vinery, installed much more receptive to the contem-
by Joseph Paxton in the mid–19th porary art that we show in the gal-
century, that will showcase horticul- lery. You get this cross-pollination
ture from the period. Twelve vines of interest. Some people are there to
were originally planted—too many go and look at the garden, and some
grapes for the ducal table, so peaches people are there to look at the con-
and other tender fruits, including temporary art, and they both maybe
cucumbers, chiles, and melons, were experience something they wouldn’t
added. “It’s going to be a great asset
have otherwise from being there.” @

62

HAPPY TO BE HERE

“It’s just a multisensory,
dreamy place,” Laura

Burlington says of the
castle grounds, which

became a refuge for
visitors at the height of the

pandemic. “It’s kind of
an explosion of wonder.”

ALL OR
NOTHING

Xiye Bastida is one of the most committed
climate activists of her generation.

Her message? Join me. By Lizzie Widdicombe.
Photographed by Miranda Barnes.

A t President Biden’s teenager who began striking out- PRODUCED BY BLOCK PRODUCTIONS.
Leaders Summit on side the Swedish parliament in 2018,
Climate in April, sparking a global movement. But
40 virtual squares Thunberg has never acted alone. This
pop up on a screen, Leaders Summit speech was deliv-
showing an array ered by Xiye Bastida, a 19-year-old
of presidents and prime ministers member of the Indigenous Mexi-
flanked by brightly colored flags. can Otomi-Toltec people, who has
The focus shifts to each as he or lived in New York City since she was
she delivers the technical language 13. It was in her home country that
of energy transitions and emissions her words went most viral, especially
targets mixed with universalist plati- among a younger generation who
tudes. There’s a dissonance to the pro- appreciated the contrast she drew
ceedings: warnings of blood-chilling with the Mexican president Andrés
disasters—fires, floods, drought and Manuel López Obrador, who’d used
crop failure, ecosystem collapse— the summit to boast about his plans to
delivered with globalist detachment. extract more oil. Afterward, Bastida
Then, halfway through the pre- tweeted a link to her speech, noting
sentation, U.S. Secretary of State that the Mexican president “lacked
Antony Blinken introduces a teen ambition.” The writer and climate
climate activist. Like everyone else, activist Bill McKibben chimed in,
she is straight-faced. But her words “Might be a good idea to put [her]
vibrate with anger, fear, despera- in charge of a continent or two.”
tion. She tells the leaders that they
are in denial. They’re talking about Bastida got so many calls that her
cutting back on coal and gas and oil. phone crashed. She deleted WhatsApp.
“You need to accept that the era of “Now,” she says, “I roast in Mexico.”
fossil fuels is over,” she says. Then
she makes her most searing indict- Bastida taught herself English in
ment. “The people here are mostly middle school and doesn’t always get
from the Global North,” she tells the every idiom. “You mean you...blew
leaders. “The systems that uphold up?” I ask.
the climate crisis rely on the existence
of sacrifice zones.” She means that “Yes,” she says, laughing. “I blew
wealthy nations have picked out cer- up in Mexico.”
tain groups to bear the consequences
of their pollution: poor countries in We are in her dorm, a residential
the Southern Hemisphere, Black and tower at the University of Pennsyl-
brown neighborhoods in the U.S., vania, where she leads a double life
Canada, and Europe. as a college sophomore, majoring in
environmental studies with a concen-
The phrase youth climate activ- tration in policy. (Penn Today ran a
ist tends to be synonymous with feature calling her “the climate girl”
one person: Greta Thunberg, the on campus.) She does most of her
reading on the Megabus, shuttling
to New York for planning sessions
with other CONTINUED ON PAGE 88

64

NEW DAY

“Put her in charge
of a continent or two,”

tweeted activist
Bill McKibben. Bastida

wears a Gabriela
Hearst sweater;
gabrielahearst.com.
Makeup, KUMA.
Details, see In This Issue.

Fashion Editor:
Max Ortega.

HARD the Academy Museum, and now the
TIMES New York Film Festival, where The
Power of the Dog played to a raptur-
In Jane Campion’s dystopian thriller The Road) and at ous response. At a packed Lincoln
The Power of the Dog, 25 is still navigating the vagaries of a Center gala screening, I watched
developing career. him delight the audience with a
Kodi Smit-McPhee self-effacing joke, and then sweep
plays a young man who But on the heels of his performance through the after-party at Tavern on
in The Power of the Dog, Jane Cam- the Green in a Dior suit. (He left early.
doesn’t quite fit into pion’s magisterial period piece about His stylist and friend Jared Eng told
the rugged Montana male repression and longing, Smit- me, “Could he go to every single event
landscape. Turns out McPhee is in the midst of a breakout, and every screening and guild event?
and perhaps aware that he himself He could, but he might hurt himself.
the actor knows should be as liberated as the charac- So he knows to scale back.”) Dog is
something about being ter he plays, Peter, a young man who a film powered by old Hollywood
an outsider. By Taylor flouts the norms of masculinity in glamour—from the clout of its auteur
Antrim. Photographed 1925 Montana. director, Campion, who hasn’t made
a movie in 12 years, to its cast of
by Tess Ayano. “Not talking about it actually did A-listers like Benedict Cumberbatch,
me a great disservice—and the peo- Kirsten Dunst, and Jesse Plemons,
It’s not so much his height but ple that I worked with,” he says. “I who themselves turn in Oscar-worthy
the way he carries it, gracefully thought, I need to be a bit more vocal performances. But miraculously it is
and a little delicately, as if he’s about this.” Smit-McPhee who both runs away
learned to move carefully through with the film and feels like its bid
space. And it turns out that Kodi So, speaking softly but even- toward modernity, playing a young
Smit-McPhee—who is probably ly, he lets out a flood of personal man who is not masculine in any of
the most exciting young actor to vie information—about how the pain, the expected ways, and through his
for awards this season—actually has. when it’s bad, is like barbed wire intelligence and confidence makes
He’s had to. wrapped around his body. About those expectations seem meaningless.
He suffers from a condition called how he struggled to do what was Oh, and he seduces Cumberbatch’s
Ankylosing spondylitis, an auto- asked of him on his first true action character, Phil, sharing a cigarette
immune disease that irreversibly af- film, 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse, and with him in one of the most quiet-
fects the spine and joints. It means even ignored a related ocular arthri- ly erotic scenes of the year. “Trust,
that Smit-McPhee, who is six feet tis that would eventually lead to the humor,” Cumberbatch says of what
two, slender as a reed, and dressed loss of vision in one eye. And how he made their rapport work. “And trying
on the morning I meet him in a soft fell into a zone of apathy and bottled to meet each other in the moment and
mohair Song for the Mute jacket, anger over his condition, and what switch off what we know of the plot
lives with pain, sometimes a lot of it. it might mean for his career, and the so that the lines can truly blur as to
“It’s something I’ve tried not to talk way the pain was always there, invisi- who is doing what to who and who is
about,”Smit-McPhee says to me, over ble to everyone else, like a chip on his really in control.” Cumberbatch was
cappuccino in Manhattan. “Because shoulder. How he started seeing a floored by Smit-McPhee in the role.
I didn’t think it represented me well.” therapist, a life coach who taught him “He doesn’t fit any stereotypes. He’s
Such are the anxieties of an actor who not to think of himself as a victim. “I built with an extraordinary mixture
started young (acting professionally was a rookie in the world of chronic of knowing and innocence. He’s visu-
at eight in his native Australia, then, pain,” he explains. “So I had to learn ally unique and mesmeric on camera.
getting his Hollywood break, at 12, to kind of transmute from the victim Kodi is his own thing. It feels like
opposite Viggo Mortensen in the into, I don’t know, for lack of better watching the future.”
words, a warrior.”
Smit-McPhee grew up in Melbourne
And it is a little warrior-like for him
to be here, on a promotional circuit not always fitting among the sporty
that has included Telluride, Toronto,
then Los Angeles for the opening of boys at his school, a heterosexual

young man with conspicuously effem-

inate traits. “In my movements, and PRODUCED BY BLOCK PRODUCTIONS.

how I talk, CONTINUED ON PAGE 91

FRAME SHIFT

“I had to learn to kind of transmute
from the victim into…a warrior,” says Smit-

McPhee, in a Gucci coat. L.E.J shirt.
Moncler hat. Grooming: Jodie Boland.

Fashion Editor: Max Ortega.

66



World to the Wise
A new generation of global independent
designers is bringing fashion and sustainability
together. Photographed by Eddie Wrey.

By Walid,
UNITED KINGDOM

Walid al Damirji structured his brand By Walid
around a single principle: no waste. “It would
be disrespectful otherwise,” the designer says

of the antique textiles like curtains, vintage
clothing, and tapestries that he transforms

into romantic blouses, jackets, and even
homewares like pillows and quilts. When it
comes to finding these materials, al Damirji
says, “I leave no stone unturned—auctions,
vintage fairs, car boot sales—you name it!”
His deep care made him one of the first in the

luxury fashion industry to take upcycling
and sustainability seriously.—STEFF YOTKA
Model Imaan Hammam wears a By Walid

kimono and gilet; bywalid.co.uk.
Fashion Editor: Poppy Kain.

68



Mozh Mozh, PERU

Mozhdeh Matin launched her label in 2015,
she explains, to “work with local artisans

and preserve their techniques.” She
was motivated by the concept of a circular

economy, and indeed, her colorful and
traditionally woven separates, dresses, and

accessories—made from alpaca, cotton,
and wool yarns also native to Peru—have
put that wheel in motion. “All artists take
inspiration from their surroundings,” she
says, “and the climate crisis is pushing a
lot of us to create inventive ways to become

more sustainable.”—MARLEY MARIUS
Model He Cong wears a Mozh Mozh cardigan,

pants, and shawl; mozhmozh.com.

70

Maison ARTC,
MOROCCO

Maison ARTC is the five-year-old
brainchild of Israeli Moroccan designer
Artsi Ifrach, who works as sustainably

as he can from his Marrakech atelier,
morphing together his vast collection

of 19th-century antique clothing
with local textiles, like handwoven

handira blankets from the Atlas
Mountains. The as he can is crucial
here: “Sustainability and industry,
production, fast fashion—none of these
are sustainable, unless you do haute
couture,” Ifrach says. His solution:
collectible one-off pieces designed to
keep the past alive in the present.

—MARK HOLGATE

Hammam wears a Maison ARTC
dress; maisonartc.com.

Bode,
UNITED STATES

When Emily Adams Bode burst onto
the menswear scene in 2017 with her

upcycled quilted jackets, the boyish
shape and the nod to craft resonated

instantly, but her reverence for the
objects and stories of the past also carried

through with quilts, clothes, linens,
tablecloths, and blankets. She’s since
introduced a tailoring shop next door
to her Hester Street flagship in NYC, where
customers can bring items to be repaired
or “preserved,” as Bode tells it. “We’re
teaching our community how clothing
can last for generations.”—EMILY FARRA

He wears a Bode coat and pants;
bodenewyork.com.

Marine Serre, FRANCE

“The regenerating process is complex,
unique, and meticulous,” says Marine Serre,

whose brand balances the use of eco-
responsible fibers with the repurposing of
vintage tees, leather jackets, jeans, and even
tea towels into savvy new garments. Serre
constructed the dress seen here from scarves

found in French markets, draping and
wrapping them to create a classic silhouette

from unexpected materials. Using the
old to make new isn’t easy—especially for a

designer producing on her scale. “We
had to rework the whole chain of production,”

she says. “Eco-futurism is about a way
to live, a way to act, and a way to get inspired.

We want things to make sense.”—S.Y.

He in a Marine Serre dress and 73
catsuit; marineserre.com.

Conner Ives,
UNITED KINGDOM

At least 75 percent of this Central Saint
Martins graduate’s designs are made

from vintage, deadstock, or sustainable
materials. “It’s always about finding new

materials to use and new processes to
develop,” says Ives. “It’s a constant and

hungry evolution.” The designer, who
hails from Bedford, New York, says living

in London has influenced the way he
sources and implements secondhand
materials. “When I first got to London,
I spent most of my time with friends going
to thrift stores,” says Ives. “I so much

enjoy the hunt.”—CHRISTIAN ALLAIRE
Hammam wears a Conner Ives top;

connerives.com.

74

Morphine, ITALY

Morphine is an innovative brand-slash-
retailer based in Reggio Emilia

selling vintage designer items—think
’90s Comme des Garçons and early-aughts

McQueen—and upcycled pieces
through its own line, Compendium 01:

Pazzesca. “Our process lies in
reawakening and giving life to products

that this industry has produced
and forgotten,” says Morphine’s project
manager, Sasha Payton. “We produce
one-of-a-kind items by customizing and

reassembling clothing, fabrics, and
yarns from deadstocks and leftovers from

across the Italian supply chain.”—C.A.

He wears a Morphine Compendium Dior
vintage jacket, and pants; morphine.online.



Ka-Sha, INDIA

“Change by design” is a kind of mantra
for Karishma Shahani Khan and her

label, Ka-Sha, based in Maharashtra, India.
Other words important to her and her

work: human, collaborate, hope, teamwork.
The artisans and people she works with

across India are as central to Ka-Sha’s story
as natural, hand-dyed fabrics and zero-
waste design methods: “We use clothing
to celebrate handcraft and artisanal
techniques, new and old,” Shahani Khan

explains. The label’s capsule project, Heart
to Haat, is produced entirely with leftover

textiles and garments destined for landfill,
“inspired by the indigenous ideology of

reusing, repurposing, and reclaiming.”—E.F.
Hammam in a Ka-Sha jacket, top,
dress, and skirt; ka-sha.com.

77

Duran Lantink,
NETHERLANDS

Some designers have mood boards for
inspiration. Duran Lantink, based in

Amsterdam, instead creates some of his
designs after trawling the city during

the Tuesday night ritual when its residents
leave things out on the street for others
to take. “I never understood using new
materials when there are so many

beautiful things around me,” says Lantink,
who started designing as a teenager,

cutting up the Gaultier and Margiela his
mother no longer wore. More recently

he has utilized the likes of a vintage Balmain
dress, a ’60s fur coat donated by a friend’s
grandmother, and a regiment’s worth of
army sweaters for his three-year-old label.

“You get a pile of clothes and just start
digging in,” Lantink says, laughing.—M.H.

He wears a Duran Lantink top;
duranlantink.com.

PRO DUC ED BY SH ADES OF GREY. Yuima Nakazato, JAPAN

At the Tokyo atelier of Japanese couturier Yuima Nakazato,
responsibly sourced fabrics are as much a part of the

design story as silhouette. For fall 2021, Nakazato marked
the 10th anniversary of his label with a collection that

included pieces made from upcycled leathers, organic cottons,
laces and linens hand-dyed with natural Japanese indigo

(a process called aizome), along with others that combined
nishijin-ori—a traditional kimono textile—with a plant-based
synthetic inspired by spider silk. Nakazato’s raison d’être:
“to make this world a better place through garments.”—M.M.

He in a Yuima Nakazato top, pants, and scarves;
yuimanakazato.com. In this story: hair, Shiori Takahashi;

makeup, Lynsey Alexander. Details, see In This Issue. For
more sustainably minded global designers, visit vogue.com.

79

Just One Thing

What’s the must-have piece of right now? Emily Ratajkowski
offers up an appealing answer: this endlessly

adaptable Prada jacket. Photographed by Sean Thomas.

EASY STREET

Whether layered over micro-mini separates or long, loose denim, this is a jacket that gets on-the-town cool exactly right. opposite: Prada jacket
worn throughout; prada.com. top: Emily Ratajkowski wears a Miu Miu cropped sweater, cropped shirt, skirt, and belt; miumiu.com. Koio shoes. above:

Levi’s denim jacket and jeans; levi.com. Inamorata T-shirt; inamoratawoman.com. Jimmy Choo sneakers. Fashion Editor: Tabitha Simmons.

82

COVER STORY

opposite: Think la vie sportive, but make it fashion. Ratajkowski wears a Vogue Collection
sweatshirt; shop.vogue.com. top: Jacquemus crop top, pants, and bag; jacquemus.com. above right:

Prada bra top, skirt, and bag; prada.com.

REACH FOR THE SKY PRO DUCTIO N ASSISTAN T, JO HN DE ARMAS.

Want to extend the season for your vibrant, if airy, dress? Throw a jacket on top.
Ratajkowski wears a Proenza Schouler top and skirt; proenzaschouler.com. In this story: hair,

84 Christopher Naselli; makeup, Gucci Westman. Details, see In This Issue.

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VOGUE.COM JANUARY 2022 87

FLIP THE SCRIPT meant to give visitors a chance to pretend Seated on a standard-issue dorm sofa,
that they’re in one of the master anima- she’s wearing her long black hair in a
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 50 tor’s films. “I recently took mushrooms in high ponytail, a blue cable-knit sweater,
a park and looked at the clouds with my and white straight-leg jeans that I rec-
Wilde and Feldstein first met in 2017 in best friend,”she murmurs as she gazes up. ognize from her appearance in a Levi’s
New York City, when Wilde was starring campaign. Talking to her, I’m struck by
in the Broadway production of 1984. In a room devoted to the art of casting, both sides of her personality: In person,
(The part was so physically demanding Wilde pauses by a glass case displaying she is very much the soulful activist who
that she broke her coccyx.) At a party, annotated Polaroids of soon-to-be- delivered that harrowing speech in April.
Feldstein caught sight of “this angel in famous faces, among them Christian Bale, But Bastida is also a chatty 19-year-old
red” and was shocked to discover that Scarlett Johansson, and Salma Hayek. who talks excitedly about her classes—
the angel knew her name. “I was like, ‘I Wilde interned for the casting director every teacher’s dream. “It was really
think I’m the only person named Beanie Mali Finn when she was still in her teens; hard for me, because I love being in the
in here, but there’s no way Olivia Wilde the experience taught her to show up with classroom,” she says of remote schooling
is talking to me.’” her own interpretation of the role. Better during COVID. “I love participating. I
to be gutsy and wrong; you might just love when the wheels turn in my brain,
Feldstein reminds me that Wilde went convince someone that you’re right. and my professor says, ‘The class is bet-
out on a limb to cast her and Kaitlyn ter because you guys are here.’”
Dever in their first leading roles. “She Wilde is certainly still acting—she has
gave so many people their first film an upcoming role in Damien Chazelle’s Her shelves are full of fiction (One
opportunity with Booksmart, whether Babylon, set in 1920s Hollywood—but Hundred Years of Solitude, The Brief
it was behind the camera in the crew, or she has at last managed to break out of Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao) as well
in front of the camera,” Feldstein says. the space where she had to represent, as history books on the labor and Civil
“We all just championed her, because she as she says, “this idealized version of a Rights movements. In her coursework,
championed us.” woman. And I felt really thrilled to get Bastida is gathering lessons from the past,
older. It’s great when you get too old to and has been struck by how many of the
Almost 20 years in Hollywood has play dumb.” What goes for art goes for concepts that her generation is currently
attuned Wilde to its entrenched inequi- life, too. “As you get older as a woman, abuzz about—Indigenous wisdom, envi-
ties. She grows passionate as she tells you put up with less bullshit,”Wilde says. ronmental justice—were first raised years
me how outrageous it is that the phrase “I’m only willing to surround myself with ago, in academia. “It’s crazy how long it
“the talent” is used to refer to the cast, people who are positive, and root for oth- takes for these ideas to reach the public,”
but not the equally essential crew; she she says. As an activist, she sees her role
praises the courage and commitment of ers. I choose kindness. I choose joy.” @ as “bridging the gap, so that knowledge
stuntpeople. “We have to evolve again,” can be embedded in mass movements.”
she says. “The crew’s health has to be THE INSIDER
more important than the bottom line, It’s hard to pinpoint when climate
and at the moment it’s not at all.” CONTINUED FROM PAGE 55 change stopped seeming like a distant
threat that Al Gore was warning us about
Wilde originally planned to play Alice software engineers. But in the meantime, and became a frightening part of daily
herself in Don’t Worry Darling. Then she Haugen is focused on getting the raw life. Certainly by last summer, we were in
went to see Ari Aster’s Midsommar, and material of the documents in front of as the thick of it. The scary-weather news
was blown away by the captivating young many people as possible and is worried came so fast you could barely keep track:
woman being terrorized by a group of about what to pack for the chilly Euro- floods in China and Germany, a heat
murderous Swedes onscreen. “Anytime pean leg of her tour. “There’s a little wave in Canada that reached 121 degrees.
there’s new talent, it’s thrilling,” she tells sliver of a chance I might have dinner Hurricanes on the East Coast, droughts
me. Wilde opted for a supporting role, with Macron,” she says, excitedly. and fires out West, flash flooding in Ten-
which proved sufficiently challenging. nessee. But by the fall, a darkly familiar
“All the people I asked for advice on how Haugen keeps faith in the power to pattern had taken hold in Washington,
to direct and act in your own movie were enact change even while it remains to be D.C. Biden’s most ambitious measures
men,” she says. “And they all said, ‘Oh, seen whether any meaningful legislation were being thwarted by West Virginia’s
it’s easy, do it!’ And now I realize it’s will come out of her testimony. Whatever Joe Manchin—who, with his Exxon
because they wore comfortable shoes, policy solutions do come may not work, connections and his multimillion-dollar
and their characters are never in corsets.” Haugen acknowledges. She worries that family coal business, seemed to be the
current calls to censor content or break human personification of the fossil fuel
The next morning, I meet Wilde for a pri- up Facebook are “so reductive” and risk industry. It would seem like a moment
vate tour of the new Academy Museum running afoul of the First Amendment. for despair—if not for the youth climate
of Motion Pictures. She looks elegant “At which point, the way we will get movement, and especially young people
and sporty in a long blue-and-white- change is if, like, we have 18-year-olds like Bastida, who have managed to clarify
striped skirt and a navy track jacket by having dance parties outside Mark Zuck- the moral stakes of the crisis and bring it
Our Lady of Rocco, her friend and La erberg’s house.” into the mainstream.
Ligne designer Molly Howard’s new
brand. A tote bag from Styles’s tour Meanwhile Haugen is okay with being Part of Bastida’s authority comes
dangles proudly from her shoulder. the face of all of this. “I am a non-noble from her life story. She grew up in San
Cincinnatus,” she says, referring to the Pedro Tultepec, a small town southwest
Wilde knows her Hollywood his- Roman hero who refused power and of Mexico City, until her family moved
tory; she herself could be our guide. She returned to his farm once the battle was northward in the wake of a series of
explains that women dominated the craft won. “If a new social movement is needed climate-related disasters: first, a multi-
of film editing early on, because cutting in order to make change, I will leave the year drought—crops failed, food prices
and stitching together film strips was beach, go do that, and I will return to spiked—followed by days of torrential
considered akin to sewing, and walks me rain. Without adequate drainage sys-
through the Wizard of Oz shot that took the beach as soon as it is done.” @ tems, “our street was a river of water,”
Dorothy from black-and-white Kansas Bastida says. “Brown, brown, brown
to Technicolor. I’m delighting in Wilde’s ALL OR NOTHING water.” In news reports, she’s sometimes
gleeful-nerd side, but after nearly three described as a climate refugee—but that’s
hours, we both need a break. In a tempo- CONTINUED FROM PAGE 64 not technically true. Her parents are both
rary exhibit devoted to the work of Hayao
Miyazaki, Wilde lies down on a tilted disc activists, speaking engagements, and
of bright-green grasslike material that’s photo shoots. That sounds hard, I tell
her. “It’s actually really therapeutic,”
she says. “It’s a double-decker, so I go
up on the top, in front, and I have this
amazing view.”

88 J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 1 V O G U E . C O M

environmentalists. Her father, Mindahi, edge of a wetland—against the advice traffic and holding a banner that said
is a leader of the Indigenous community of the Indigenous community. “The beacon 4 climate. More strikes followed:
in the region, and has campaigned to pre- community was like, ‘This is a wetland. marches to the Museum of Natural His-
serve its wetlands. Her mother, Geraldine, The building is going to sink.’ ” The tory, a die-in in Times Square as part of a
is an ethno-ecologist. (They met at the university proceeded anyway, hiring coalition called Fridays for Future. Swip-
1992 Earth Summit in Rio, where nations engineers, conducting tests, and decid- ing through photos on her phone, she
signed the first framework agreement on ing, wrongly, that it was safe to build. says how amazing it felt. “I’ve never felt
climate change.) When the floods struck, “Every place has its own story, its own so in charge of our own destiny.”
they were already planning to move to people,” Bastida says. “So you have to
New York City, to take jobs at the Center ask them before you build.” This was That summer, Thunberg sailed across
for Earth Ethics, a program founded by a lesson she’d heard her father repeat the Atlantic Ocean to give a speech to
Gore’s daughter Karenna Gore, at Union many times, but it seemed to land differ- the United Nations General Assembly.
Theological Seminary, in Harlem. ently coming from a 15-year-old. It was In August, Bastida, along with another
a breakthrough moment: “I realized that climate activist, Alexandria Villaseñor,
The family arrived in the fall of 2015 my voice, as a young person, is import- who was then only 13, were chosen to
and squeezed into a cozy two-bedroom ant, and people hear it.” meet her when she disembarked. As Bas-
apartment provided by the seminary. tida describes the whirlwind of attention
Xiye shared a room with her brother, When she returned to New York, she that followed, one moment stands out:
Danzaki, who was 10 at the time, and her joined Beacon’s ecology club, which was She and Villaseñor were in Washington,
parents enrolled her in a public middle busy doing what most high school ecol- D.C., for a panel discussion, when she
school on 130th Street—a big adjust- ogy clubs do: developing the school’s checked her Instagram account. There
ment, Geraldine told me. In Mexico, Xiye recycling program, screening documen- was a blue check mark by her name.
had been a star student. She loved school taries, swapping vegan snacks. Bastida “And then my friends started calling
and was passionate about animals. “She was convinced they could do more. She me: ‘Xiye, Xiye, you just got verified!’”
was so full of energy,” Geraldine said. applied for a leadership position. “I got From that point, her followers grew by
But in New York, she struggled with the everyone together and was like, ‘Okay, the tens of thousands. It was another
language, and had a hard time navigating we’re going to start lobbying in Albany.’” lesson. “A lot of times people think
her social world. Many of the students Environmentalists in New York State that you need a platform first to enact
seemed resentful and disengaged. Then, were working to pass the Climate Lead- change, but that’s not true,” she says. She
in class, she learned about the United ership and Community Protection Act, started to think about how to distinguish
States’ history of slavery and racial dis- one of the world’s most ambitious cli- her message from Greta’s. “It’s just the
crimination—and became aware that mate laws. Bastida’s club took a bus to emphasis on the people who are the most
New York had one of the most segre- Albany, met with legislators, testified affected,” she says. “And also on voices
gated school systems in the country, with at hearings, and held rallies at the state- that are not being heard because you’re
institutions like hers woefully under- house. “I remember one day, we were not inviting them to decision-making
funded. “There was not one white per- chanting and singing in the bus, and it felt tables. So diversity, inclusion, all of the
son in my whole school,” she tells me. “It like camp,” she recalls. “It just changed things that Greta wasn’t representing
sounds very naive now, but the idea that the way we saw our role. We could change because she couldn’t represent them. But
because of who you are, the color of your our city, we could change our state, we then obviously, she was very well aware
skin, you can be discriminated against, could change the education system.” about that—and her presence brought
was totally shocking to me.” Marilyn Vasta, who is on the steering all of this attention on us.”
committee for New York Renews, the
Bastida put herself through a self- coalition of groups behind the law, told Bastida also wanted to bring an ele-
imposed English boot camp—listening me that Bastida stood out immediately ment of positivity to the discourse. “At
to music in English, watching Hollywood from other youth activists. “She’s incred- the time, Greta’s famous speech was ‘Our
movies on repeat. “I was basically forc- ibly charismatic, and she was quite fear- House Is On Fire.’ The message was,
ing my brain to learn,” she says—and less.” She was especially good in front of ‘Adults are destroying the planet and our
gradually, school got easier. By the end a camera. Some people seem a little too future. We, as youth, have to rise against
of her eighth-grade year, she was valedic- drawn to it, but, Vasta recalls, Bastida you.’ And my thinking is, like, Yes, all of
torian and class president, and she won remained focused on the goal. “She nei- that is true. But every single person in a
admission to Beacon, a selective public ther pushed herself forward, nor did she position of influence is an adult.” So she
high school in Hell’s Kitchen. In Mex- shy away from it in any way.” tried to talk about collaboration, and
ico, she’d dreamed of becoming a veter- intergenerational solidarity—learning
inarian, but, Geraldine told me, Xiye’s By 2019, Bastida started to feel dis- from her parents and grandparents. “We
thinking expanded once she arrived in illusioned by her lobbying efforts. (The got people’s attention, and now we need
New York. “I think she was realizing that New York climate bill eventually passed, to make this into a sustained thing where
she could do something to help animals but state officials have still failed to put it the adults won’t be like, ‘Oh, shut up.
and nature on a larger scale.” into action or allocate funding.) “It was You’re just yelling at us. We’re not lis-
like, What are we actually getting out of tening to you!’”
She got the chance during her soph- talking to politicians, if they’re not doing
omore year, when Mindahi was invited anything?” Around that time, the world I ask Bastida to show me around her
to speak at the World Urban Forum in was taking note of Greta Thunberg’s dorm room, which is cheerful and girly.
Malaysia. He couldn’t make it, but he climate strike outside of the Swedish There is a blue Penn pennant on the wall,
asked the organizers if his 15-year-old parliament, and Bastida was electrified and Polaroid pictures of friends and
daughter could go in his place. Sur- by her example. “Since our civic duty, as family, which she’s hung from a string
prisingly, they said yes. In February students, is to go to school, the only way with clothespins. The bed is made, with a
of 2018, Bastida found herself onstage we’re going to get adults to pay attention heart-shaped pillow and a red polka-dot
in Kuala Lumpur, part of a panel of to us is by disrupting our civic duty,” she pillowcase—all ethically sourced cotton,
experts in sustainable development. says. She organized a walkout at Bea- of course. “I did a lot of research on it,”
“This whole time I’m thinking, What con, which involved reassuring her prin- Bastida says. Like many activists in her
do I say?” she remembers. In the end cipal that the action wouldn’t generate generation, she scoffs at the notion,
she decided to tell a story from her bad press. In the end, she managed to common in my youth, that individuals
childhood in Mexico, about officials at persuade 600 students to strike. They can head off environmental catastrophe
the university where her mother taught stormed into Columbus Circle, stopping by doing little things like recycling and
deciding to build a new building at the changing our light bulbs. (“We should

89

just ban plastic entirely,” she says.) Nev- and it was, like, 30 years ago,” she says. Bastida was going, and she had one extra
ertheless, she’s put herself in charge of the But she regretted it all the same. ticket, which she’d gotten from the TED
dorm room’s recycling. Bastida’s room- organization. “Don’t tell anyone,” she
mate Sri Narayanamoorthy tells me that Her other roommate is studying to be said. She’d decided to give it to Ayisha
Bastida does this cheerfully. “She leaves a vet. “She’s living my dream,” Bastida Siddiqa, a 21-year-old Pakistani climate
Post-its next to the recycling, saying, jokes. “I had it all worked out, when I activist who was at the event. The group
‘Remember, you can’t recycle soft plas- was six or seven. I was going to learn she cofounded is called Polluters Out,
tic!’ And there’s one next to the bathroom French, become a veterinarian, and then which works to exclude fossil fuel compa-
light switch that says, ‘Turn me off!’” move to Paris, open up a boutique-slash- nies from climate negotiations. Oil com-
veterinary clinic.” (The boutique would panies are all over environmental events as
Bastida’s roommates are all environ- sell dog clothes.) I ask if she has regrets sponsors—as are the banks and insurance
mentalists in a Gen Z way. Narayana- about the road she’s going down. “It’s companies that finance their operations.
moorthy is a student at Wharton, Penn’s not that I’m unfulfilled by my choice,” Bastida struggles with how to respond.
business school, studying sustainability she responds. “But I’m always asking the “Sometimes I think that polluters have to
retail—specifically, the clothing industry. question every activist asks themselves, pay. They caused this crisis, and they have
“My focus is on extending the garment which is, ‘What would we be doing if we to pay for the solution.” But, she says,
life cycle,” she says. And in her spare didn’t have to deal with injustices?’ ” It “There’s also guilt.” It’s hard to remain
time, she makes clothes from reused might be a generational question. “Our pure when you work on climate change.
fabric. She was working on a tongue- potential is not realized because we are “Everything is tied to fossil fuels in some
in-cheek Halloween costume for Bastida: fixing things that are broken.” way,” she says. “It’s hard to be part of the
“hot earth.” Narayanamoorthy shows solution without touching any of this.”
me a sketch: a chic blue minidress, with In September, I went to see Bastida
green continents licked by flames. “I’m speak at a Fridays For Future march in That points to the intractability of the
thinking the base material is probably New York City, where crowds of people problem. It’s inspiring that Bastida’s par-
going to be denim,” she says. “Xiye filled Battery Park. It was a gorgeous ents met in the climate movement—but
recently worked with Reformation, and warm evening, and the sun cast a golden it’s also ominous. The world has known
they do a great denim minidress.” glow across the lawn. Bastida talked about climate change since the middle
about the beauty of the world she’s fight- of the last century. COP-like gatherings
Bastida used to be wary of corporate ing to save, and delivered a warning “for have been happening for 30 years, and
partnerships. “I always thought, Oh, world leaders and industries”about what emissions keep going up. When I asked
companies are so evil, they’re literally they can expect from the youth climate Bastida’s mother, Geraldine, if she worries
destroying the planet. But it’s not like in movement: “We will not stop striking, about how her daughter will handle the
the future we just can’t have companies, mobilizing, studying, and challenging prospect of failure, she told me, “We have
or the economy.” So she tries to support your actions.” Afterward, two budding not taught our children that life is about
the ones that seem to be successfully climate activists approached her for a success in that way. It’s not about winning.
changing their business practices. She picture. They told her that they were in It’s about doing the best you can.”
asks for their sustainability plans, and middle school. And Bastida got nos-
tries to assess whether their executives talgic. “I got to New York when I was Bastida seems more optimistic. She
seem genuinely committed to action. in eighth grade,” she told them. “Time draws on her readings of history. “Often
Still, she says, “It’s a very fine line, and I goes by so fast.” people were starting to mobilize long
feel like I cross it sometimes.” She men- before anything happened. In the Civil
tions taking part in a Nike campaign She mingled with the other speak- Rights Movement, people started orga-
last year, for instance, confessing that ers, and the air was filled with youth- nizing in the 1930s.” This movement
she didn’t think about their association activist-speak: “What’s your org?” “How could be the same. “I imagine it being
with sweatshops until someone com- long have you been with Zero Hour?” written in history books: ‘It started in
mented on Instagram. “I looked it up, “Are you going to COP?” That was a ref- 2019 with 600 kids or 5,000 kids in New
erence to the U.N. summit in Glasgow.

In This Issue Crowne Plaza Jordan. using Chanel Le Vernis. 70: The Arc belt;
Center right photo: Tailor, Louise Wallis. @thearclondon
Table of Contents: VV Rouleaux ribbons Gucci coat; gucci.com. for information.VV
06: Bra top, skirt, and and flowers; vvrouleaux L.E.J shirt; lej.london. ALL OR NOTHING Rouleaux flowers;
belt; michaelkors.com. .com. Manolo Blahnik Amiri pants; amiri.com. 64–65: Tailor, Cha Cha vvrouleaux.com.
Jimmy Choo shoes; shoes; manoloblahnik Moncler hat; moncler Zutic. Al Arabia earrings and
jimmychoo.com. .com.Al Arabia earrings .com. Clarks boots; ring; Crowne Plaza
Cover Look: 06: Bra and rings; Crowne clarksusa.com. Bottom HARD TIMES Jordan. 71: Manolo
top, skirt, and belt; Plaza Jordan. Bottom left photo: Gabriela 67: Coat; gucci.com. Blahnik shoes; manolo
michaelkors.com. left photo: Sweater; Hearst sweater, Shirt; lej.london. blahnik.com. Carolina
Manicurist, Emi Kudo, gabrielahearst.com. skirt, and boots; Hat; moncler.com. Barros earrings;
using Chanel Le Vernis. Contributors: gabrielahearst.com. carolinadebarros
Tailor, Louise Wallis. 12: Top right photo: WORLD TO THE .com.Al Arabia bead
Editor’s Letter: 08: Left Ka-Sha jacket, top, FLIP THE SCRIPT WISE necklace; Crowne
photo: Feather coat, dress, and skirt; 39: Dress; shoprodarte 68–69: The Arc Plaza Jordan. Emefa
bra top, and skirt; gucci ka-sha.com.The Arc .com. Shoes; jimmychoo Givenchy Couture Cole necklace and
.com. Shoes; ysl.com. belts; @thearclondon .com. 41: Feather coat, vintage dress, and belt; ring; emefacole.com.
Right photo: Coat and for information. bra top, and skirt; gucci @thearclondon for Alighieri ring; alighieri
pants; bodenewyork Manolo Blahnik boots; .com. 42–43: Dress and information. Manolo .co.uk. 72: The Arc
.com.The Arc Alexander manoloblahnik.com. shoes; balenciaga.com. Blahnik shoes; manolo Alexander McQueen
McQueen vintage top, VV Rouleaux ribbon and 46–47: Jacket; Chanel blahnik.com. VV vintage top, and
and belt; @thearclondon flowers; vvrouleaux select boutiques. 49: Rouleaux ribbons and belt; @thearclondon
for information. .com.Al Arabia earrings; Dress; louisvuitton.com. flowers; vvrouleaux for information.VV
Sunglasses; celine .com.Al Arabia earrings Rouleaux ribbons and
.com. 51: Tops, skirt, and and rings; Crowne Plaza flowers; vvrouleaux
choker; gucci.com. Jordan. Emefa Cole .com.AlArabia earrings;
Manicurist, Emi Kudo, ring; emefacole.com. Crowne Plaza Jordan.

90 J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 1 V O G U E . C O M

York. Then there were 300,000.’ Then and Cumberbatch’s characters in Dog (Celine and Dior mostly), he notes that
I want to read 2021, 2022, 2023, it was leaves little ambiguity in the world of Smit-McPhee is quite fearless in what
millions and millions of people around the film. In place of a traditional audi- he’ll wear: Nanushka, Australian brands
the world.” She went on, “When you tion, Smit-McPhee won the role after a like Strateas Carlucci, and expressive
think about it in a historical framework, I conversation with Campion about the jewelry from Hirotaka and Celine. In
character and the 1967 Thomas Savage November, Smit-McPhee walked his
think we’re actually moving really fast.”@ novel her script was based on. “He was first runway—for Gucci’s spring 2022
so quick off the bat,” Campion says. “I show in L.A.
HARD TIMES was going like, Oh my God, this boy is
so smart and so fascinating. He’s also “I love exploring,” he says, which
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 66 extremely courteous and very, very ten- goes double for his hobbies: digital art,
der and sensitive.” Dunst, who plays painting, and music, all of which he takes
and things that I like,” he says, “I was Smit-McPhee’s mother, says she and her quite seriously. Music, especially: He
categorized as weird, an outcast.” And costar, Plemons, gravitated to him on the produces beats and raps, and also plays
the example of his father, the television film’s set (on location in New Zealand, guitar—a skill put to the test on his next
and film actor Andy McPhee, who has which stands in, ethereally, for Mon- film, Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, in which he
a successful career and was intent on tana). “There are no airs with him, no plays the country singer Jimmie Rodg-
teaching him street smarts, loomed large. pretense,” Dunst says. “He was just so ers. “I was originally going to lip-sync
“My dad is, like, six foot six, muscle-y, kind and supportive with me and vice and just pretend,” he says. “But Baz flies
covered in tattoos, and rides motorbikes,” versa, and he loved Jesse and me. We by the seat of his pants, and he’ll throw
Smit-McPhee says. The two are close, but talked about his girlfriend, we just talked challenges at you out of nowhere. And I
Smit-McPhee ultimately had to decide about everything together.” wanted to go along that ride, so I played
how to carry himself in the world. “One guitar and I sang, and I was very proud
day, I remember actually saying, ‘Unfor- Meanwhile, Campion put her actors that I did that.”
tunately, I’m never going to be like you. through their paces, asking them to work
I have to just commit to being like me.’” with a choreographer and in methods His next move will be to slow down
When his parents divorced, he remained like the Alexander Technique. Some a little and regain a sense of routine
with his mother, younger brother, and of this discipline was foreign to Smit- back at home. It’s a cycle he’s learned
older sister, Sianoa, who is also an actor, McPhee and very different from the in order to manage his condition, to find
and visited his dad on alternate weekends freestyle, improvisatory training his a balance between activity and rest and
(the two also traveled to Smit-McPhee’s father had given him. “She has a way of recovery. Relocating to Australia helped.
film sets together). He says that the com- challenging your comfort zone,” he says He moved there during COVID, giving
pany of women at home helped him of Campion. “She also saw something up his perch in Los Angeles—a city he’d
remain in touch with who he was. “I can in me that possibly I didn’t see myself.” settled in at 14. “I sold my fancy Tesla,”
still be masculine just the way I am,” he he says, with a laugh. For years anxi-
says. “I learned that facing my illness. I’m In one key scene he walks among the ety about what was next had ruled him.
still strong. You know? I’m still a brave ranch hands like a runway model—a “You feel like a bull at a gate, waiting
man. I’m still a confident man.” comparison Smit-McPhee endorses. He’s for people to come see how passionate
loved fashion since he was young. “My you are about what you do and the hard
“He’s such a beautiful-looking crea- mother always told me to not be afraid of work you put into it.” Breakouts have a
ture,” says Campion by phone from color, so I wore anything that I liked, no way of quieting your ambitions—for
London. “And he lives in the world in a matter what social kind of category it fit a bit. “I just love being with the land
different way than a lot of men.” Smit- you in.” There are few rules, of course, in and getting dirty and riding my motor-
McPhee, who has a long-term girlfriend, menswear right now, and while Eng (who bike. I’m happy that I’m satisfied by
takes care to separate what he calls his is also the blogger behind Just Jared) has something so simple. It’s like being a
feminine side from any discussion of been dressing him in minimalist tailoring
sexuality. The two are separate things, he kid again, you know?” @
says—though the chemistry between his

A WORD ABOUT DISCOUNTERS WHILE VOGUE THOROUGHLY RESEARCHES 73: Al Arabia earring Blahnik boots; manolo JUST ONE THING shoes; koio.co. 84: request. 10. Bag,
THE COMPANIES MENTIONED IN ITS PAGES, WE CANNOT GUARANTEE THE and ring; Crowne Plaza blahnik.com. VV 81: Top photos: The Attico shoes; $4,500. 11. Necklace,
AUTHENTICITY OF MERCHANDISE SOLD BY DISCOUNTERS. AS IS ALWAYS THE Jordan. 74: Alighieri Rouleaux ribbon and Shoes; koio.co. theattico.com. price upon request.
CASE IN PURCHASING AN ITEM FROM ANYWHERE OTHER THAN THE AUTHORIZED earrings and ring; flowers; vvrouleaux Comme Si socks; 85: Shoes; koio.co. 12. Dress, $5,700.
STORE, THE BUYER TAKES A RISK AND SHOULD USE CAUTION WHEN DOING SO. alighieri.co.uk. Emefa .com. Al Arabia commesi.com. Comme Si socks; 13. Bag, $4,800.
Cole ring; emefacole earrings; Crowne Plaza Bottom photos: commesi.com.
.com. 75: VV Rouleaux Jordan. 78: Noor Sneakers; jimmychoo LAST LOOK
flower; vvrouleaux.com. Fares earrings and .com.Jennifer Fisher THE GET 92: Saint Laurent Rive
Al Arabia earring; necklace; noorfares earring and necklace; 86–87: 1. Ring, Droite water bottle;
Crowne Plaza Jordan. .com. 79: VV Rouleaux jenniferfisherjewelry $4,050. 4. Necklace, yslrivedroite.com.
76–77: The Arc belts; flower; vvrouleaux .com. 83: Top right price upon request. Saint Laurent by
@thearclondon for .com.AlArabia earrings; photo and bottom 5. Bag, $3,350. Anthony Vaccarello
information. Manolo Crowne Plaza Jordan. left photo: Koio 9. Watch, price upon holder; ysl.com.

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91

Last Look PROP STYLIST: ALICIA SCIBERRAS.

Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello
water bottle and holder

With this glistening golden water canteen—a slick, cylindrical twist-top bottle that
comes with its own carrier in the form of a raffia crossbody bag with an adjustable
leather strap—Saint Laurent seems to be chasing a synergy between haute and hydration.

Sling it over your shoulder to help you get your recommended eight cups.

PHOTOGRAPHED BY RYAN JENQ

92 J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 2 V O G U E . C O M

EVERY YOUNG WOMAN DESERVES
THE OPPORTUNITY TO WRITE HER FUTURE

Lancôme is committed to funding critical learning programs in the United States to help achieve
equity in education with the Write Her Future Scholarship Fund. In partnership with the NAACP,
Lancôme will provide mentorship, workshops, and scholarships to young women of color that are
college-bound. These programs will support them in creating the successful futures they deserve.

*UNESCO