Harper's Bazaar USA - August 2016

A COIN

Here, they talk about what bonds them, what divides them, and finding independent paths. By Lauren McCarthy

PIERPAOLO sM A R I A G R A Z I A
PICCIOLI CHIURI

ON HIMSELF ON MARIA GRAZIA ON HERSELF ON PIERPAOLO

What is your What is Maria Grazia’s What is your What is Pierpaolo’s

favorite color? Black. favorite color? Black. favorite color? Black. favorite color? Red.

What is your favorite movie? What is her favorite movie? What is your favorite What is his favorite movie?

La Notte, by La Grande Bellezza, movie? Pride and Prejudice. La Notte, by

Michelangelo Antonioni. by Paolo Sorrentino. What is your favorite Michelangelo Antonioni.

What is your favorite What is her favorite TV TV show? Game of Thrones. What is his favorite TV show?

TV show? The X Factor and show? Political debates. What’s your favorite The X Factor.

Say Yes to the Dress. What’s her favorite food? food? Fruit. What’s his favorite

What’s your favorite food? Pasta al pomodoro. What is your favorite food? Fish.

Spaghetti al pomodoro. What is her favorite word? word? Freedom. What is his favorite word?

What is your Peace. Describe your perfect day Oxymoron.

favorite word? Love. Describe her perfect day Being anywhere in the Describe his perfect day

Describe your perfect day Traveling with family. world with my family. He would spend it at home

In my place by the seaside, How many pairs of shoes How many pairs or at the beach.

with my family and friends. does she own? Hundreds. of shoes do you own? How many pairs of shoes

How many pairs of shoes What’s her least favorite I’ve never counted them. does he own?

do you own? Hundreds. food? Cheese. What’s your least Many—seriously.

What is your least favorite What is her greatest fear? favorite food? Cheese. What’s his least favorite

food? Oversophisticated food. Same as mine—something What is your greatest fear? food? Meat.

What is your greatest fear? bad happening to the people Anything and everything What is his greatest fear?

That something bad could that she loves. that concerns my health and Anything regarding the health

happen to the people I love. Who is her celebrity crush? the health of the people I love. of the people he loves.

Who is your celebrity crush? Keira Knightley. Who is your celebrity Who is his celebrity

Marcello Mastroianni. If she hadn’t become a crush? Papa Francesco. crush? Mika.

If you hadn’t become a designer, what would she be? If you hadn’t become a If he hadn’t become a

designer, what career would An art collector, a critic, or designer, what career would designer, what would he be?

you have? Movie director. anything that regards art. you have? I would have worked A movie director.

Describe yourself in one Describe her in one word in a museum or a library. If you had to describe

word Dreamer. Passionate. Describe yourself in one him in one word, what

Who would play you in a Whom would you cast word Open-minded. would it be? Smoker.

movie? Tim Roth. to play her in a movie? Who would play you in a Whom would you cast

What is your favorite item Robin Wright. movie? Anna Magnani. to play him in a movie?

of clothing? My first What is her favorite item What is your favorite Marcello Mastroianni.

Mastroianni black suit. of clothing? All of her item of clothing you own? What is his favorite item

How do you take your vintage pieces. Old blue sweatpants. of clothing? Denim.

coffee? Espresso with How does she take her How do you take your How does he take his

a little brown sugar. coffee? Black espresso, sugarless. coffee? Bitter, no sugar. coffee? With very little sugar.

Describe your managerial Describe her managerial Describe your managerial Describe his managerial

style Team player. style Teamwork. style Teamwork. style Reflective.

What is your go-to drink? What is her go-to drink? What is your go-to drink? What is his go-to drink?

Beer. Just water. Water. Beer.

What’s your favorite book? What’s her favorite book? What’s your favorite book? What’s his favorite book?

One Hundred Years of Solitude, Pride and Prejudice, Pride and Prejudice, One Hundred Years of Solitude,

by Gabriel García Márquez. by Jane Austen. by Jane Austen. by Gabriel García Márquez.

Continued on page 178

Face-off. Clothing, Valentino. Jewelry, Maria Grazia Chiuri’s own.

See Where to Buy for shopping details. Sittings editor: Sam Broekema. Hair and makeup: AlexaRodulfo.com for Chanel Les Beiges and Oribe Hair Care.
142

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST DISAGREEMENT YOU’VE HAD?

PIERPAOLO:
“HIGH HEELS OR FLATS.”

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ITEM OF CLOTHING?

MARIA GRAZIA:
“OLD BLUE SWEATPANTS.”

Portrait by Martin Schoeller

GWEN
S T E FA N I

After a divorce, a hit album, and
a new romance with Blake Shelton, the pop star

is once again making beautiful music.
By Laura Brown

Photographs by Alexi Lubomirski

144

A weight lifted.
Stefani with Michael

Heizer’s Levitated
Mass at the

Los Angeles County
Museum of Art.

Gown and sandals,
Alexander McQueen.

Bracelet, Cartier.

FASHION EDITOR:
Natasha Royt

CHRIS BURDEN, URBAN LIGHT, 2008, 202 FULLY RESTORED LOS ANGELES CAST-IRON STREET LAMPS FROM THE 1920S (17 STYLES OF LAMPS THAT HAVE
BEEN SANDBLASTED, PAINTED, AND ELECTRIFIED), COLLECTION LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART © CHRIS BURDEN ESTATE

Silver surfer. In front of Chris
Burden’s Urban Light, 2008. THIS
PAGE: Jacket and pants, Roberto
Cavalli. Necklace, Chopard. OPPOSITE
PAGE: Dress, Michael Kors Collection.
Shoes, Christian Louboutin.

View from the top. THIS
PAGE: Dress, Burberry.
OPPOSITE PAGE: Dress,
Dolce & Gabbana. Earrings,
Harry Winston. BEAUTY
BAZAAR Get Gwen’s
signature red lips with
Urban Decay Vice Lipstick
in Spiderweb ($17).



he joy of interviewing Gwen Stefani is that you don’t even have to glance at your ARTWORK: MICHAEL HEIZER, LEVITATED MASS, 2012, DIORITE GRANITE AND CONCRETE, 35 × 456 × 21 2/3 FT (10.67 × 138.98 × 6.6 M), WEIGHT: 340 TONS. LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART, PURCHASED WITH FUNDS PROVIDED
questions.They sit, folded and lonely on the couch while she just talks. Candidly BY JANE AND TERRY SEMEL, BOBBY KOTICK, CAROLE BAYER SAGER AND BOB DALY, BETH AND JOSHUA FRIEDMAN, STEVE TISCH FAMILY FOUNDATION, ELAINE WYNN, LINDA, BOBBY, AND BRIAN DALY, RICHARD MERKIN, M.D., AND
and freely, almost guilelessly, which is extraordinary given that Stefani has been in THE MOHN FAMILY FOUNDATION, AND DEDICATED BY LACMA TO THE MEMORY OF NANCY DALY. TRANSPORTATION MADE POSSIBLE BY HANJIN SHIPPING HOLDINGS CO., LTD. © MICHAEL HEIZER/ TRIPLEAUGHT FOUNDATION
the public gaze for more than 20 years. Especially when you consider what she has
faced personally over the past 18 months: a traumatic split—beset by cheating
allegations—from her husband of 13 years, Gavin Rossdale; a new album, This Is
What the Truth Feels Like; her first number one as a solo artist; and an unexpected
romance with fellow Voice judge Blake Shelton. Stefani and Shelton, having per-
formed the emotional duet “Go Ahead and Break My Heart” two nights earlier on
the show (“We’re number one on the country charts!” she trills delightedly) are the

T equivalent of America’s prom king and queen.The national mood:You’d have to
have a heart made of coal not to root for them.
“It’s like, what’s there to hide?” Stefani says, sitting in a trailer outside the Los

Angeles County Museum of Art after her Bazaar cover shoot. She has changed back into combat-style trousers and

a T-shirt, filled with fashion-y holes, that reads, everyone loves an italian girl. Fearsome red studded Christian

Louboutin stiletto boots—her casual arrival footwear—lie kicked over in a corner of the makeup room.

While Stefani, 46, is an open book, she will at times cut out some pages.“It’s because I have children,” she says,

referring to her three boys with Rossdale: Kingston, 10, Zuma, seven, and Apollo, two. “As a famous person, you start

to think,‘I can’t say all that because I’ll embarrass them or hurt them in some way.’ And especially now because they

can see everything and hear everything.” She adds with some pride,“But I’ve done nothing I’m ashamed of …” before

breaking into laughter.“Well, we all have a few things we’re ashamed of.”

Celebrity profilers, and pundits, often employ the phrase “X has never been/looked/seemed better.” But in Stefani’s

case, the odds are stacked in her favor. There is a palpable ease to her as she neatly launches into her life story

as a prologue for her current chapter. “I’ve had such a weird extreme life line,” she starts off, poking at a cookie.

“Amazing parents, they’re having their 50th wedding anniversary. I’m the second kid. My older brother, Eric, was

the creative one; he was my best friend. We started a

band together [No Doubt, which he and Stefani “My dreams were shattered.
formed in 1986, when she was still in high school].

We never meant to make it. Like, we just wanted to All I wanted my whole life was
play shows, you know? And then I fall in love with to have babies, be married, like
this 16-year-old guy,Tony [Kanal], who ends up being

our bass player, and we do everything together—and what my parents have.”
then he breaks up with me.” Their split fueled the

band’s breakthrough album, 1995’s Tragic Kingdom

(Eric Stefani left the group before its release). By this time she was on her way to stardom. But, she says, taking

a breath,“I was like, ‘What am I doing? This is, like, seven years of my life.’” Soon after, though, the band went on

tour, and Stefani met Rossdale, the handsome British lead singer of the band Bush.“Then the next chapter: I meet

Gavin, right? And that was it.” The two were married in London in 2002. (Stefani wore a dip-dyed white-and-pink

wedding gown by John Galliano for Dior, which now sits in the Victoria and Albert Museum’s permanent collec-

tion.) “[My personal life] was my boyfriend and then my husband.”

Stefani, for all her years of cool, her Comme des Garçons, her Harajuku Lovers, and her L.A.M.B., is a traditional,

uncomplicated girl.“I’ve never been the type of person who thought I would have any impact on anyone. I just didn’t

even have those kind of dreams, you know?” But the dreams happened—No Doubt was huge, selling more than

13 million albums—and its sassy blonde frontwoman was fast becoming a pop and fashion icon.Also one who started

to write music, beginning with 1995’s “Just a Girl,” which, many years later, would turn out to be her prescription

for emotional wellness after the destruction of her marriage.

Stefani’s next big evolution—following the hiatus of No Doubt and the launch of her lauded B-A-N-A-N-A-S

solo career—was the birth of Apollo in 2014, when she was 44, 11 years into her marriage.“Yep, it was a surprise,”

she says, “but it was also the beginning of a waking up, like, ‘Oh, my God, that’s beyond this world.’ He was kind of

another beginning. And literally as soon as he was born, they called me about The Voice.”

Apollo, now barely two, was “only 11 months old when everything happened,” Stefani explains.“Everything”

has now been well told: Stefani’s discovery in February 2015 of Rossdale’s alleged infidelity with the children’s

nanny.“Everybody knows what happened next,” she says. Stefani performed at the Grammys, and her world came

crashing down the next day. “February 9,” she adds wryly. “I obviously know the date.” Continued on page 178

150































MEETING EMILY RATAJKOWSKI is like meeting the zeitgeist. those shows specifically play into for prepubescent girls, where it’s like
I knew of the actress; I had been struck by her sympathetic portrayal of the bitchy cheerleader …
a lovelorn college student in Gone Girl. Though the camera had been NW: So you were modeling at that point too?
all about her gleaming upper body as she played a love scene with Ben ER: I signed with an acting agent first; I wasn’t really interested in signing
Affleck (tough day at the office, no doubt), I was impressed that she took with a modeling agent. But that same day they said,“You should go over
the “slutty other woman” stereotype and played it with compassion. She to Ford.” Then they signed me.
is also an outspoken feminist, whether addressing body-image issues NW: How old were you then?
on Lena Dunham’s site, Lenny, or challenging the haters with a topless, ER: Fourteen, but I looked exactly the same as I do now. They didn’t
in-your-face Instagram alongside Kim Kardashian. know what to do—I looked like a woman.
NW: It’s a problematic space where someone is a child but perceived
At 25, Ratajkowski is plenty articulate. Her views reflect a dramatic as a woman.
shift in the culture, as many young women actually do call themselves ER: I genuinely hit puberty before everyone. So I really was more sexual
feminists these days. Her politics, especially about the body (show it off), than my classmates. My teachers, my boyfriends, my parents’ friends didn’t
attention (why should women not want it?), assertion, and self-acceptance understand how complex it all was. Because of third-wave feminism,
occurred to me as mostly very good news. Her peers, the children of a I understood that there are all these fucked-up ideals of beauty put on
pornographic culture, are doing just what they should do, given the wash young women; that there was something to be scared about in the enter-
of objectified, naked bodies everywhere. They are engaged in establish- tainment world. But yet the people I knew in my everyday life, they
ing a new narrative to reclaim the body: From SlutWalk to Free the [didn’t realize] their faux pas, their missteps, and since they knew me
Nipple to promoting Body Positive agendas, it is obvious that they are it was that much harder because the comments felt personal.
not the sober puritans of feminism of yore.
A woman can be seeking attention
Do these actions raise real issues? Absolutely.I respect Ratajkowski’s frank
perspective, but I still wish she could have a huge career and keep her
shirt on—if she wishes. Is her brand of fierce feminism the future? Prob-
ably. Am I glad that she and her peers, on-screen and off-, are speaking
out, even if what she says sometimes makes me uneasy? Definitely.

NAOMI WOLF: All right, so you have been out there a lot recently. I’m and also make a statement. They don’t
getting the impression that there is a wave of Emily-ness going on.
EMILY RATAJKOWSKI: Is there a wave of Emily-ness? need to be mutually exclusive.”
NW: You’re very candid about how you use your sexuality and your body
and how you communicate. NW: Can you give me an example?
ER: A lot of media attention came earlier this year from being a Bernie ER: Once I had a teacher, who was a woman, snap my bra because she
[Sanders] supporter. I could’ve said I was supporting anyone, and people was mad that it was showing. She did it in front of the class.
would’ve been shocked and horrified.That became a moment, and then NW: That’s shocking.
I wrote my essay,“Baby Woman,” for Lena Dunham’s newsletter. ER: It was, like, something I became very used to. I had a girlfriend who
NW: Which I read and really liked.The beauty of feminism is that there was Venezuelan, and her body developed in a different way. I had big
isn’t a wave of historical erasure, like “Now it’s your job.” boobs, and she had a big butt. She would wear jeans with no pockets that
ER: Well, I think it’s everyone’s job. would show it off, and we were constantly in trouble at school with the
NW: I mean your generation’s. dress code.We were harassed, and, damn, that was the worst part of it.
ER: Right, exactly. NW: That’s so obnoxious. So you were both having your bodies shamed.
NW: I want to hear your story. Where did you grow up? ER: I remember going to Forever 21 and buying this ridiculous pink
ER: San Diego mostly, but I was born in London and lived there until thong underwear because I thought,“That’s what you do, right?” It would
I was five.We traveled a lot. But really San Diego is my hometown. It’s pop out, and I’m sure that would bother people. But at the same time it
where I went to high school. might’ve been a tool that I didn’t understand. Being part of a patriarchal
NW: Were you interested in theater and performing as an adolescent? society, it kind of helped me figure out what I was all about. I loved in
ER: No, it started in London, actually. My mom was teaching there, and your book The Beauty Myth when you talk about this ideal world where
she would get a discount on plays. I was obsessed with it. Once we went women could dress sexually casually and it wouldn’t even be something
to San Diego, I stuck with it.When I was 14, a lot of people said,“She’s that anyone would notice. For me, that’s something I’ve lived by. I don’t
such a good actress, she loves theater, she looks like a woman, she should wear a bra all the time, and I don’t think about it.
consider moving to L.A. and trying to do this professionally.” My parents NW: I think you should be able to explore whatever you want to explore.
were hesitant, but they would take me. Thong or no thong or overalls or shave your head or not. If they have a
NW: To go to auditions when you were 14? problem with my sexuality, that’s their problem.Which leads me to your
ER: I started auditioning when I was 15 for the Disney and iCarly topless selfie with Kim.
roles, but I didn’t relate to those characters.They were archetypes that ER: I didn’t know her personally, but Kim posted this naked selfie in

Sittings editor: Jessica de Ruiter. Hair: David Babaii for Leonor Greyl; makeup: Jo Strettell for Dior Addict;
manicure: Emi Kudo for Dior Vernis; production: Joey Battaglia at Rosco Production.

When Lena Dunham

takes her clothes off, she gets flack,
but it’s also considered brave;
when Justin Bieber takes

his shirt off, he’s a grown-up.”

of tweets; she sent me flowers, thanking me, which

was very sweet.We ended up running into each

other and had this idea to take a similar selfie with

our middle fingers up.

NW: Now, I’d also love a world where women could

get plenty of attention for a picture like that clothed.

ER: Absolutely. Kim wrote,“We both have nothing

to wear,” because that was in reference to the origi-

nal one. So this was very lighthearted.… I wrote,“We

are more than just our bodies, but that doesn’t mean

we have to be shamed for them or our sexuality.”

NW: It was a very political image, but I guess she

can’t necessarily think of it like that.

ER: Also, Kim is someone who could be criticized

for a lot of different things about what she represents,

but to me it was an important moment to say,“Even

this person who you could criticize for all these

different things doesn’t deserve this response, right?”

NW: We’ve gotten to ground zero of this whole

conversation, which is that there’s still the fear and

contempt of female sexuality and the just intolerable

cultural reaction when women take ownership of

their sexuality and their bodies.

ER: Kim said that to me. You know, when Lena

Dunham takes her clothes off, she gets flack, but

it’s also considered brave; when Justin Bieber takes

his shirt off, he’s a grown-up. But when a woman

March, and there were black bars on her private areas. And there was who is sexual takes off her top, it plays into something.
this uproar, especially from Piers Morgan, who wrote this whole thing
about “she’s a mother, she’s 35, it’s ridiculous…” NW: I’ll just jump in and say that any woman is sexual.
NW: Wait, I don’t understand—at 35, she’s too old?
ER: “…She’s too old and she’s a mother, and we’ve given her enough ER: Right, of course, but there is a distinction in the reaction between, for
attention, like she needs to stop doing this.” That made me really angry.
She wrote a few tweets responding to all the hate she was getting from example, Kim taking off her shirt and Lena. It’s not fair to either of them.
this post, and then Piers said Kanye [West] had written those tweets,
which also infuriated me to no end. NW: Ya, it’s fucked up. I’m sorry.
NW: Oh, my God! Jesus.
ER: A selfie is a sort of interesting way to reclaim the gaze, right? You’re ER: It is. And I agree with you—any woman is sexual, absolutely.
looking at yourself and taking a photo while looking at everyone. But
also who cares? Kim’s allowed to do what she wants. So I issued a series NW: I wish that you and Kim and everyone who’s creating cultural objects

around their own bodies could have the right to define those images for

themselves. At the same time I’m also seeing in that image the huge influx

of pornography and the rigid definition of it. Women learn what a sexy

woman is from porn or from airbrushed Victoria’s Secret models, so

I would love a world in which you don’t have to look like that to say,

“Screw you, I own my sexual body.” Continued on page 179

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Photographs by Alexi Lubomirski