Vogue

Beauty Health

smooth. “Within a month, you’ll look better. In six months, and Kaminer warns me, “The noise might be the worst part

you’ll really see it, and after a year, you should be very, very of this whole thing.”

happy,” the doctor tells me. Best of all, I would likely have to The machine did indeed whine and gurgle as Kaminer

do it only once. “Most women seem to have all the dimples began placing the suction cup over my dimples, one by one,

they are going to get by their mid-40s,” Kaminer says. Al- and releasing the villainous ibers. I am no fan of needles,

though the technology is still too young for claims that the yet I felt nothing but anticipatory happiness. I wouldn’t

results are permanent, dimple-causing bands I am no fan feel sore until two days later. Back at home,
do not grow back once they are destroyed. I followed Kaminer’s instructions and wore

After my initial appointment, I call one of of needles, yet Spanx, took showers instead of baths, and
Kaminer’s former patients, Paola Pacella, a I felt nothing but didn’t engage in any strenuous exercise for
46-year-old personal trainer who had Cellina four days. As the doctor had promised, there

performed ive years ago as part of the clini- anticipatory were plum-colored bruises, but they faded
cal trial that resulted in the FDA clearance. happiness atthe as fast as the pinpricks healed. By day ive, I
“No matter how lean I got, even down to 13 doctor’s office felt nothing.
percent body fat,” she tells me, “I still had
A week after the procedure came the unveil-

cellulite.” She tried topical lotions, scrubs, ing: I stood in daylight in front of my boyfriend

professional wraps. Nothing worked. And then she heard after a shower. He pronounced my derriere beautiful, smooth.

about the new treatment. “Five years out, my cellulite is In the days that followed, I found myself running my hand

still gone,” she says. over my newly released lesh, which felt satiny and taut, as if

Two weeks later, I lie facedown on a table in the surgery it had been lat-ironed.

room while Kaminer’s team of technicians—four funny, In a few months, it will be time to put on a bathing suit

chatty women—sticks me a few times per side with anes- again. I look forward to buying a new one, with a zip front,

thetic needles. Within ten minutes, I am completely numb, cut high on the thighs.

Trend Force of NATURE

San Francisco’s Credo boutique is changing perceptions—and
complexions—with its clean-beauty concept.

S hashi Batra was an early apostle for natural beauty. As part of
the landmark team that imported Sephora to the U.S. in the late
nineties, he wanted to push organic moisturizers and serums
into the mainstream—a challenging task at the time. “No one was
coming in looking for that,” he confesses. Flash forward 20 years,

and the demand for natural products has ballooned: A study

published in 2015 estimates sales at $33 billion. Encouraged, Batra began

preaching the green gospel again. Last winter, he launched Credo (Latin for

“I believe”), an e-commerce site devoted entirely to so-called clean FLOWERS: GLOW IMAGES/ © GETTY IMAGES. MAKEUP: ALEX CAO/ © GETTY IMAGES.

personal-care brands. When he opened a brick-and-mortar store in San

Francisco a few months later, people paid attention. “It’s genius,” says

eco-chic trailblazer Tata Harper, who installed her first mini-spa in the

Fillmore Street flagship. Located on a veritable beauty row where Aesop,

MAC, Kiehl’s, Le Labo, and Benefit all have outposts, Credo stands out

as much for its teal facade as for its revolutionary retail experience: Each

staff member is both a licensed aesthetician and a makeup artist, trained

to speak intelligently on a curated inventory of more than 100 brands.

Online, customers can peruse an extensive “dirty list”—toxic ingredients

to ditch—and use a clean-swap tool that compiles conventional mainstays

and proposes green alternatives, like EVOLVh hair care, designed to

mimic a high-performing salon line, and Suntegrity’s SPF products, which

dispel the notion that natural sunscreen can’t be effective. Harder-to-

find organic cosmetics lines with real pigment payoff, like makeup artist

Rose-Marie Swift’s popular RMS Beauty (Miranda Kerr is a fan), have,

according to Batra, made color a fast-growing category. If Credo has

earned the lofty description of being “the Sephora for natural beauty,”

Batra is quick to play down the comparison. “We are not trying to be a

PETAL POWER supermarket,” he says of his niche intentions. But with a steady influx
AS GREEN BEAUTY BOOMS, CREDO
IS GIVING NATURAL BRANDS A of new products and a Nolita franchise set to open in New York in May,

BROADER PLATFORM TO THRIVE. the ayahuasca hair oil–loving mind does wander.—FIORELLA VALDESOLO

VOGUE.COM





people are talking about
EDITOR: VALERIE STEIKER

if youareinthemarketfor
revelatory—and pulse-
quickening—productions
of plays that you thought
you knew all too well,
then the Belgian director
Ivo van Hove is your man.
On the heels of his devastating

staging of Arthur Miller’s A View

from the Bridge, van Hove returns

to Broadway this month with his

take on The Crucible, Miller’s

thinly veiled allegory about the

1950s Communist witch hunts,

set against the actual 1690s Salem

witch hunts, featuring music by

Philip Glass and an A-plus cast

led by Ben Whishaw and, mak-

ing her professional stage debut,

Saoirse Ronan.

After an early Crucible re-

hearsal, I catch up with Whishaw

and Ronan. Perhaps best known

for his role in the BBC’s ifties-set

newsroom show The Hour, the

35-year-old British actor had an

action-packed fall, with roles in

ME L BLES. S I TT I N G S ED I TO R: SON N Y GRO O. HA I R, T EI JI U TSU MI ; M A KEU P, FLO RR IE WH ITE. D ETAILS, SEE IN TH IS ISSUE. Spectre, The Danish Girl, and

the television series London Spy.

But like a lot of British actors of

his generation, Whishaw got his

start on the stage, with a breakout

performance as Hamlet in Trevor

Nunn’s 2004 production at the

Old Vic, and most recently ap-

peared in the West End’s Peter and

Alice, opposite Dame Judi Dench.

As it happens, he irst took on the

role of the lawed but morally cou-

rageous John Proctor in a school

production when he was ifteen.

“It’s a play that schoolchildren un- theater

derstand, somehow, because it’s DOWN THE Totell the
about a microcosm, isn’t it?” says GARDEN PATH
WHISHAW IN TRUTH

Whishaw, sporting a ploughman’s A GUCCI COAT Ben Whishaw and Saoirse Ronan play
beard for the role. “And people AND RONAN foes and former lovers in Ivo van Hove’s
ganging up and bullying and hys- IN A CAROLINA
HERRERA DRESS. Broadway revival of The Crucible.

teria.” Although he went against

physical type in casting the slight Whishaw—Broadway’s

last John Proctor was Liam Neeson—van Hove was more

interested in the actor’s ability to bring many dimensions to

the character: “You feel that there’s a secret world in his mind,

in his body, and you never know where he will go.”

As Abigail Williams, a vindictive seventeen-year-old who

destroys lives with her false accusations, Ronan is revisiting

territory she explored in her Oscar-nominated PATA >2 10

VOGUE.COM 209V O G U E A P R I L 2 0 1 6

people aretalking about FINE LINES

WESSELMANN’S SUNSET NUDE
WITH BIG PALM TREE, 2004.

theater Body Tom Wesselmann loved Matisse most of all, but, determinedart
to go his own way, created splashy, adlike takes on traditional
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 209 OF subjects that made him a reluctant star of the Pop Art A RT: TOM W ESSE LMA NN . SUNS ET NU DE W I TH B I G PA L M TR EE, 200 4. OI L O N CA N VAS, 10 5” X 128”. © ESTATE OF TOM WESSELMANN/VAGA, NEW YOR K,
movement. Yet while Warhol and Lichtenstein have had their COURTESY OF MITCHELL-INNES & NASH, NEW YORK. MOVIES: VAN REDIN/ © 2015 PARAMOUNT PICTURES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
breakthrough in Atonement as Bri- due, an upcoming survey of Wesselmann’s paintings at Mitchell-
ony, a vindictive thirteen-year-old
who destroys lives with her false ac- Work Innes & Nash will be the first of its kind in New York since the
cusations. Coming of her nuanced artist’s death in 2004. “The hope is to reintroduce his work to
(and also Oscar-nominated) por- a new generation,” says Lucy Mitchell-Innes—and, she adds,
trayal of an Irish immigrant torn to pave the way for a major museum retrospective. The show focuses on
between two suitors in Brooklyn, large-scale, mixed-media still lifes and figure paintings from the 1960s on,
the 21-year-old Ronan is looking including two from the Cincinnati-born artist’s famous Great American
forward to “the commitment and Nude series. Wesselmann often incorporated postcards and magazine
the stamina” required by the stage. pages in his work, as well as functional objects—a phone that really rang,
When we irst meet Abigail, it’s been a clock that really ticked. Eventually he’d make his “paintings” more fully
seven months since she was thrown 3-D with molded plastic and laser-cut metal. No matter the medium, he
out of Proctor’s house, where she maintained a keen interest in color, and in the female form.—KATE GUADAGNINO
had been a servant, because his wife,
Elizabeth (Sophie Okonedo), discov-
ered that they’d been having an af-
fair. “He’d taught her everything she
knows about the world, made her
feel for the irst time important for
who she was,” Ronan says. “And I
think she wants to feel powerful and
needed the way she did with him.”

Adultery, sorcery, mob hysteria:
van Hove, who has a gift for making
plays feel both timeless and uncanni-
ly of the moment, believes that audi-
ences will ind all kinds of ways into
Miller’s material: “I think this play
perhaps works even better now that it
can be liberated from the McCarthy
era—it speaks more about ourselves
these days than perhaps we’d like to
admit.”—ADAM GREEN

movies GAMES PEOPLE PLAY a good-humored portrait of college life in eighties Texas, Rich-
ard Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some stars Blake Jenner
TEAM NEWBIE (BLAKE (Glee) as Jake, a freshman baseball pitcher who must carve
JENNER) GETS THE out his place among his teammates—a freewheeling crew that includes

GIRL (ZOEY DEUTCH).

a garrulous lady-killer (witty Glenn Powell) and a philosophical stoner

(Kate Hudson’s half-brother Wyatt Russell)—while pursuing a spunky

theater major (Zoey Deutch). As festive and breezy as Boyhood was

low-key and deep, the movie shows of Linklater’s sharp eye for the

rituals that deine young manhood—the cocky banter, the silliness

around women, and especially the peacocking; whether heading to

the disco, the country bar, or the campus theater party, Jake and his

buddies dress to strut their stuf.

Business suits encounter sheiks’robes in Tom Tykwer’s upbeat adap-

tation of AHologram for the King, Dave Eggers’s dreamlike novel about

the end of the American Era. In a nifty piece of casting, Tom Hanks

plays Alan Clay, a divorced Boston businessman who, to save his career,

goes to Saudi Arabia to sell the king some expensive IT. But when his

majesty proves as hard to meet as Godot, Clay ends up killing time with

zany drivers, slippery princes, and two attractive women (Homeland’s

The BEAT goes ON Sarita Choudhury and Borgen’s Sidse Babett Knudsen) who help this
confused American get his groove back.—JOHN POWERS PATA >2 1 2

210 V O G U E A P R I L 2 0 1 6 VOGUE.COM



people aretalking about BY THE BOOK

School of ROCK JOURNALS AVAILABLE AT
ADRIENNEWONG.COM.
Director John Carney (Once) discovered the
up nextpower of music somewhere in the early eighties.
His new film, Sing Street, which he calls “a
UP N E XT: COU RTESY O F T HE W EI N ST E I N CO M PA N Y.fantastical version of my teenage years,” is set
DESIGN: LUCAS VISSER. DETAILS, SEE IN THIS ISSUE.in his hometown of Dublin, at a moment when
the Irish economy was sliding and music videos
were on the rise. Sixteen-year-old newcomer
Ferdia Walsh-Peelo stars as Conor, who starts
a band to impress an aspiring model with the
mesmerizing name Raphina (Lucy Boynton).
The makeshift group, called Sing Street after its
members’ parochial school, becomes a paragon
of New Romanticism, replete with Flock of
Seagulls hair, guyliner, and chintzy music videos.

Walsh-Peelo was cast for his proficiency on
the guitar but felt a connection to more than
the music. “My granddad, my father, and my
uncles all went to Synge Street school [the film’s
namesake and shoot location], and it’s hardly
changed—the hallways, the uniforms,” he says.
Born in 1999, he was less familiar with the musical
era, and so he immersed himself. “I’d never
come across that stuff before, but I’m a whiz
now,” he says. Walsh-Peelo particularly got into
Hall & Oates and now describes M’s song “Pop
Muzik” as “seminal.” And while Walsh-Peelo is
already auditioning for new roles—Sing Street
premiered at Sundance and will be released by
Weinstein this month—Carney might be pleased
to know that the film’s actors still regularly get
together in Dublin to jam.—MARK GUIDUCCI

KISS ON design

MY LIST NOTEWORTHY

THE ACTOR Step into spring with Adrienne Wong’s whimsical
PLAYS A hand-bound journals in seasonal shades of rose,
daffodil, and aqua. The New York–based Wong
SINGER WHO was a graphic designer before getting into decor
WOOS LUCY and stylishly updating the notebook—with cover
BOYNTON’S illustrations of soft graphics and organic shapes that
CHARACTER. play off traditional gilded edges. SAMANTHA REES

212 V O G U E A P R I L 2 0 1 6 VOGUE.COM

DEEP WATERS

HIDDLESTON’S
JONATHAN PINE
FINDS ELIZABETH
DEBICKI’S JED
HARD TO READ.

television

DOorDIE

t elling a lie is one thing, living it A thrilling adaptation of The Night Manager
another. Just ask the hero of has Tom Hiddleston as an unlikely spy.
The Night Manager, AMC’s
MI TCH JE N KI NS/A MC sensationally good six-part security man, Corcoran (a delectably There’s no question of ever trusting
thriller based on the best poisonous Tom Hollander), you Roper, who’s as ruthless as he is
seller by John le Carré. Tom keep wondering when Pine will give connected. He’s played with chilling
Hiddleston stars as Jonathan himself away. malevolence by Laurie, whose
Pine, an honorable, romantic-souled modulated performance forever
ex-soldier who works as the night The closest le Carré ever came answers the question “How would Dr.
manager at a luxury hotel in Cairo. But to a James Bond thriller, The Night House have behaved if he’d been pure
when someone is murdered there, Manager is the best adaptation of his evil?” Of course, this being le Carré, a
he’s recruited by an intelligence agent work in either movies or TV since the writer not afraid of unhappy endings, we
(Olivia Colman, excellent as ever) to BBC did Smiley’s People in the early can’t be sure that the heroic Pine has
infiltrate the inner circle of “the worst 1980s. Working from a taut script what it takes to stop the entitled Roper.
man in the world”—Richard Onslow by playwright David Farr, Danish But we do know that this is an almost-
Roper (Hugh Laurie), a billionaire director Susanne Bier knows that the perfect role for Hiddleston, whose aura
arms dealer with disturbingly close key to making such a glamorously of likable, good-humored decency
ties to the British government. implausible tale suspenseful is nearly always masks something darker.
If that isn’t tricky enough, Pine starts getting us to believe in its characters. (That same quality comes in handy
developing feelings for Roper’s Even as she sleekly rockets us from in his winning performance as the
mistress, Jed (The Great Gatsby’s Egyptian streets to posh alpine brilliant and self-destructive Hank
Elizabeth Debicki), who, like virtually lodges, she anchors the film in vivid Williams in I Saw the Light, a biopic of
all le Carré heroines, is in dire need work from all her actors, be it the the country singer opening late March.)
of rescue. Given that his every move lanky Debicki as Jed, whose carefully This superb actor has never felt more
is monitored by Roper’s paranoid concealed sense of entrapment like a star than he does as Pine, a
evokes a Hitchcock heroine, or man who discovers that to take down
Homeland’s David Harewood as a a monster you have to unleash the
CIA operative who seems almost too monster in yourself. J.P. PATA >2 1 4
straightforward to be trustworthy.

VOGUE.COM 213V O G U E A P R I L 2 0 1 6

people aretalking about In northern Guatemala, where
a lush rain forest gives way to
travel the clear waters of Lake Petén
Itzá, you’ll find the rustic-chic La
The Lake HOUSE Lancha. Part of the Francis Ford
Coppola portfolio, the resort has
just undergone a renovation that
expanded the dock and doubled
the size of the suites, newly
outfitted with white mahogany
antiques and brightly colored
woven textiles. Guests can climb
the nearby Mayan ruins of Tikal,
then return for a swim or a meal
of fresh bay snook fish at the
open-air restaurant. “I find it’s
one of my favorite properties. I
love the simplicity,” says Coppola,
“and the howler monkeys.”
thefamilycoppolaresorts.com. K.G.

FRESH PERSPECTIVE
LA LANCHA OFFERS SWIMMING,
CANOEING, AND TUBING.

booksBRIGHT LOAVES AND
Young Things FISHES
TRAVEL: JOSÉ RODRIGUES/ © GETTY IMAGES. SCENE: MAIRA KALMAN. MAIRA KALMAN’S
Spring novels feature lost PAINTINGS
girls in the big city. HANG IN UNION
SQUARE CAFE’S
She knew if she waited long enough it WINDOWS DURING
would happen. The big bang, the cos- RENOVATION.
mic crash, the delightful disturbance
that would determine her true city fate,” scene
thinks Lucy, the Idaho naïf turned art-world
muse in Tuesday Nights in 1980 (Scout), Molly Second SERVINGS
Prentiss’s love letter to a vanished New York.
Innocence can be a kind of currency, one easily W hen a rent hike forced Union Square Cafe to shutter, New
stolen, or so inds the young Midwestern wait- Yorkers heaved a collective sigh of dismay. But then came the
ress in Stephanie Danler’s memoir-like Sweet- good news that the New American favorite would rise again
bitter (Knopf), whose tutelage by a jaded older nearby. The David Rockwell–designed space will be roomier, with double-
couple gives way to Dangerous Liaisons–style height ceilings and an upstairs bar, while retaining a bustling feel. The dish-
lessons in oysters and betrayal. Don’t quit your es, too, should be a mix of old and new, with some surprises. “I don’t play
day job: That’s the takeaway of Lisa Owens’s favorites with the menu, but Chef Quagliata has a pretty magical way with
ruefully funny Not Working (Dial Press), featur- pasta,”says Danny Meyer. Farther north, Daniel Humm and Will Guida-
ing a Generation Y Bridget Jones, whose red ra are at work remaking their high-end seasonal fare for the fast-casual
wine–and–TED talk–fueled pursuit of a higher trend: Made Nice will ofer classic pairings (chicken and lemon; salmon
purpose in life leads to hard truths and hang- and dill) at a price point ideally suited for grabbing a quick bite. “It will be
overs. A trip to Sri Lanka provides no easy re- to NoMad as NoMad is to Eleven Madison Park,”says Guidara—“faster,
demption for the wayward heroine of Hannah less expensive, but just as delicious and just as gracious.”—LILI GÖKSENIN
Tennant-Moore’s Wreck and Order (Hogarth),
who speaks to 20-something motivations— VOGUE.COM
“lust, rage, lust, rage”—with bracing honesty.
But perhaps the most unrepentant of all is the
social-climbing auction-house assistant in L. S.
Hilton’s jubilantly mordant Maestra (Putnam).
Already optioned for the big screen by Amy
Pascal, it’s the story of a twenty-irst-century
femme fatale as lethal as Tom Ripley and as
seductive as Bacall.—MEGAN O’GRADY

214 V O G U E A P R I L 2 0 1 6





April 2016

TOMORROWLAND

How will the future family live and dress? Our prognostications include
android au pairs, salads from airborne pods,virtual-reality vacations on
demand—and plenty of clean-lined,cool,and ultracomfortable day chic.

Photographed by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott.

EX MACHINA
“Unfussy” isn’t a new ideal, but it has great currency. We all want to be, finally, liberated from physically constricting clothes—and
sartorial foolishness. That’s why a loose top and lounge-y, laid-back pants are the shape of things to come. Model Joan Smalls wears a Vetements
shirtdress, $1,180; matchesfashion.com. Boss pants, $375; select Hugo Boss stores. Honda humanoid robot. Details, see In This Issue.

Fashion Editor: Tonne Goodman.

GAME CHANGER

Robot for the win!
(And, on Mom,
minimalism’s winningest
color combination.)
Ralph Lauren Collection
silk-jersey cropped
sweater, $890; select
Ralph Lauren stores.
Calvin Klein Collection
pants, $950; Calvin
Klein Collection, NYC.
Cartier watch. On
Abraham: Vineyard
Vines shirt. Bonpoint
shorts. On Ava: Oscar
de la Renta dress.
On actor Nikolaj Coster-
Waldau: ATM Anthony
Thomas Melillo
T-shirt. Linde Werdelin
watch. Details, see
In This Issue.



ETERNAL SUNSHINE

A new era calls for a new kind of cover-up—like a matching jacket, say,
instead of a pareo or kurta. Dolce & Gabbana jacket ($2,745) and swimsuit
($575); select Dolce & Gabbana boutiques. On Ava: Lands’ End jumper,
shirt, and shoes. On Coster-Waldau: Solid & Striped swim trunks.

GOOD SHAPE

The interesting
silhouettes we’re
seeing are essentially
geometric—witness
this creative spin on
the old high-low with
an apron skirt–over–
trousers combination.
Marni top ($770)
and skirt ($1,500).
Top at select Neiman
Marcus stores. Skirt
at Marni boutiques.
Jil Sander trousers,
$870; Jil Sander,
NYC. Bulgari ring.
Fendi sandals. Details,
see In This Issue.

MOTHERBOARD

Most of the prints here are
feminine but abstract, only
hinting at florals or other
organic forms. These squiggles
could remind you of coral—
or maybe wiring and circuitry
configurations. J.W.Anderson
top, $1,095; j-w-anderson
.com. Annelise Michelson
earrings. Asobu Glass Water
Bottle with Fruit Iceball Maker.
Details, see In This Issue.

223

224

VIRTUALLY

DISTINGUISHABLE

Do we dress for a
big night when we’re
traveling to the
fabulous fete via VR
headsets? Yes, we
do—this isn’t Y2K
gaming in sweats
on the couch; it’s
society networking
via immersive tech.
Proenza Schouler
top, $890; Proenza
Schouler, NYC.
Delpozo skirt, $1,750;
bergdorfgoodman
.com. Alyssa Norton
cuff. Michael Kors
Collection belt. On
Coster-Waldau:
Brooks Brothers
polo shirt. Burberry
trousers. PlayStation
VR. Double Robotics
Double 2 Telepresence
Robot. Details,
see In This Issue.

NEW TRICKS
Robotic dogs: They’re

cute, friendly—and
they don’t shed on your

pristine Space Age
digs. Sailor pants are
also cute and friendly;

pair them with an
extra-lanky sweater
and you’ve created a
newsy A-line silhouette.
Sportmax sweater,

$695; Sportmax,
NYC. J.Crew pants,

$138; jcrew.com.
WowWee CHiP robot

dog and MiPosaur
robot dinosaur.

226

ORGANIC CHEMISTRY

Loungewear—or post-postmodern formalwear? Either way, we’re loving the look of
outlines and contrast piping. J.W.Anderson shirt ($745) and pants ($695); Maryam
Nassir Zadeh, NYC. Sophie Buhai ring. On Coster-Waldau: Rag & Bone jeans. Boskke

Sky Planters. Samsung Family Hub refrigerator. Details, see In This Issue.



FUTURE PERFECT

A new utopia: the relaxation of
pajama dressing—with all the

panache of McQueen. McQ
Alexander McQueen jacket

($995), shirt ($485), and
trousers ($550); mcq.com.
Jennifer Fisher choker. Hermès
bag. Stella McCartney shoes. On
Abraham: Lands’ End shirt and
pants. On Coster-Waldau: J.Crew
sweater. ATM Anthony Thomas
Melillo T-shirt. Faraday Future
FFZER01 concept car. Ehang 184
Autonomous Aerial Vehicle. In
this story: hair, Garren at Garren
New York for R+Co.; makeup,
Mark Carrasquillo. Menswear
Editor: Michael Philouze. Set
design, Bette Adams for Mary

Howard Studio. Architect,
Mike Rostami for Unicon

Builders, Inc. Photographed at
a Mulholland Realty property.

Details, see In This Issue.



Wo r k i n g

Rihanna has revealed a new sound, launched
an agency, designed a debut fashion line,and is
embarking on a 63-city world tour. Canglobal

domination be far behind? ByAbbyAguirre.
Photographed by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott.

It’s Super Bowl Sunday, and I am in the large
Mediterranean home of Real Housewife Carlton
Gebbia in Beverly Hills, the setting for Rihanna’s
Vogue shoot. The 28-year-old singer appears in
the doorway, fresh off a plane from Toronto,
where the night before she and Drake wrapped
the video for their hit single “Work.”She is wear-
ing a vintage Guess leather biker jacket, a gray
Star Wars T-shirt, and green Vetements sweat-
pants, her sleek black hair chopped into a blunt nineties
bob. Even such a Netlix-and-chill look cannot conceal the
singular proportions of her body. She hugs me hello and then
loats upstairs, where hair and makeup stylists await.
I settle into a chair outside and pass the time by—what
else?—checking my phone. Thanks to the demands of the
24-hour news cycle, every Instagram post by a pop star has
become a source of intrigue, every teased video clip fodder
for frenzied speculation. On this particular afternoon, the
RiRi chatter, robust on any day, is reaching peak hysteria.
Ten days earlier, Rihanna dropped Anti, her irst album
since 2012. For seven years, she had released a new pop
confection every year, like clockwork. Then, suddenly, noth-
ing. It wasn’t just the timing. Anti immediately announced
itself as something diferent. A deiant, idiosyncratic mix
of dance hall, doo-wop, and soul, it did not deliver her

A LEAGUE OF HER OWN

“I can only do me,” the singer says. Ralph Lauren Collection dress.
Anita Ko ear cuffs. Details, see In This Issue.
Fashion Editor: Tonne Goodman.

UNAPOLOGETIC

Her friend Cara
Delevingne describes
Rihanna’s mode as
“go with your instinct
and go with your
gut.” Givenchy Haute
Couture by Riccardo
Tisci dress. Details,
see In This Issue.

usual instantly gratifying, reliable pop formula. Stoking the year to just do whatever I want artistically, creatively,” she

ire were rumors that Anti was leaked through Tidal, the says. “I lasted a week.” The paparazzi got a picture of her

streaming service run by Jay Z and co-owned by Rihanna. going into the studio, “and my fans were like, ‘Oh, yes! We’s

Next were the reports of impossibly low sales igures. Then, droppin’ a single.’ ” From that moment, she says, the Navy

the day before, out of nowhere, came the surprise release of was expecting an album. It would be another two years.

Beyoncé’s pointedly political video for “Formation.” The Turns out it takes a while to reinvent your sound. As

Internet is ablaze: Did Bey just try to steal RiRi’s thunder? Delevingne says, “Anti’s got its own genre, and that genre

And, most breathlessly: Is Rihanna going to make a surprise is her.” Had Rihanna gotten bored with the pop formula?

appearance at the Super Bowl?! “Very much,” the singer says. “I just gravitated toward the

Rihanna, meanwhile, is reclining on a chaise on a veranda songs that were honest to where I’m at right now.”From the

in the sun, taking pulls from a joint and sending wisps of irst song, “Consideration,” a trip-hop collaboration with

smoke into the cloudless California sky. She’s listening to a SZA, the message is clear. The chorus has Rihanna singing,

remix of Sia’s “Chandelier,” occasionally belting out a lyric “I got to do things my own way, darling.” It’s “like a PSA,”

in that inimitable Bajan tone: “I’m gonna live like tomorrow she tells me. She recognizes the risks: “It might not be some

doesn’t exist! Like it doesn’t exist!” automatic record that will be Top 40. But I felt like I earned

the right to do that now.”

W e are living in a golden age of Avoiding the bravado and easy hooks of past hits, another
pop divas. Beyoncé, Taylor song, “Higher,”reveals a woman who’s been burned by love.
Swift, Adele: Rarely have Rihanna compares it to “a drunk voice mail.” She explains,
the top ranks been so ruled “You know he’s wrong, and then you get drunk and you’re
by women. We feel vulner- like, ‘I could forgive him. I could call him. I could make up

able with Adele, empowered with him.’ Just, desperate.” The candor is heightened by

by Taylor. We want to watch a husky, soul-inlected warmth. “We just said, ‘You know

Beyoncé. Watch her dance, watch her dominate the mar- what? Let’s just drink some whiskey and record this song.’ ”

ketplace, watch her slay. In this gloriously crowded arena, Then there’s “Work,” on which she repeats the word

Rihanna transmits something unique. Not afraid to show work until it is no longer recognizable, a lourish one critic

us her flaws, Rihanna inspires us to, as her friend Cara called “post-language.” While it evokes a technofuture, it’s

Delevingne puts it, “go with your instinct and go with your actually a nod to her home culture in Barbados. (Though

gut, and if people don’t like you, fuck ’em.” Rihanna now splits her time between New York and

This take-it-or-leave-it realness is what draws young L.A., her ties to the island remain strong. She is close with

women into the ranks of Rihanna’s iercely loyal fan base, her mother, Monica Braithwaite, who owns a clothing

known as her Navy, after a lyric from boutique there, and with her mater-

her song “G4L.” And in 2016, the “It might not be nal grandfather, Lionel Braithwaite, a
Navy is going to get a lot of Rihanna. frequent star of her Instagram feed.)

Over the next few weeks alone, her some automatic record “You get what I’m saying, but it’s not
plan is to ly to New York to debut a col- that will be Top 40,” all the way perfect,” she says. “Because
lection she designed for Puma at New that’s how we speak in the Caribbean.”

York Fashion Week; return to L.A. for she says. “But I felt In the accompanying video she made
the Grammys; then head to London like I earned the right with Drake—“Everything he does is so
to perform at the Brit Awards (she will amazing”—Rihanna grinds and jerks in

grind with Drake in white-hot fringed to do that now” a knitted Rasta-colored Tommy Hiliger
pants); and, two days after that, go dress at a raucous dance-hall party, the

back to California to begin a 63-city kind “we would go to in the Caribbean

world tour. Her looks on tour are “inspired by neutral earth and just dance and drink and smoke and lirt,” with her

tones,” she says, “and evolve from one extreme to the other real-life best friends, Melissa Forde and Jennifer Rosales.

as the show progresses.” Joining her will be Big Sean and the There have been a few singles dropped along the way,

Weeknd in Europe, as well as Travis Scott, whom she’s been including “FourFiveSeconds,” an acoustic collaboration

seen out with in the last few months. “I like to bring people with Kanye West and Paul McCartney. “It’s almost like no

who can get the crowd excited,” she says. one ever told him about his success,” Rihanna says of Mc-

“I probably am going to have like four days of tour Cartney, whom she found to be endearingly humble. “It’s

rehearsal in total, which is Freaking. Me. Out,” Rihanna like, Aren’t you busy being a Beatle?” Last spring brought

says. It’s after 9:00 p. ., the shoot is over, and we’re sitting “Bitch Better Have My Money,” an over-the-top revenge

cross-legged in red leather recliners in the home theater of fantasy whose video walked the line between empowerment

the Beverly Hills house, sipping Pinot Grigio from Dixie and misogyny. “It’s just a way to describe a situation,” she

cups. “My schedule is so crazy right now.” It’s why, she says. “It’s a way to be in charge, to let people know that

says, she’s single: “It’s deinitely going to be a challenge you’re all about your business.”

when I do decide to pursue a relationship . . . but I have Over the past two years, Rihanna has deinitely been all

hope!” Exercise is also hard to ind time for. “I don’t work about her business. After fulilling her contract with Def

out as much as I’d like to,” she says, “but my trainer Jamie Jam, she created her own imprint, Westbury Road Enter-

is a beast and she makes me pay for it.” tainment, on Universal’s Roc Nation label. In a bold move,

After her last tour, in 2013, for Unapologetic, Rihanna she then acquired the masters of all her previous albums

vowed to take a break from recording. “I wanted to have a and made a reported $25 million promotional deal with

233

Samsung. Robyn Rihanna Fenty, the island girl plucked what many on Rihanna’s team have said. “There isn’t an

from obscurity at sixteen by a posse of music moguls, is image, a font, a piece of clothing that she does not approve,”

becoming one herself. It’s because she’s so attuned to the her longtime manager, Jay Brown, says.)

seismic changes in her industry that she also bought a share It’s a natural move: Rihanna loves fashion, and fashion

of Tidal. “Streaming counts now,” she says. Like any savvy designers love her. Tom Ford describes her style as “daring,

businesswoman, Rihanna knows it’s important to diversify. fearless, and constantly evolving.” (Rihanna, in turn, says

Last fall, she announced a new venture, Fr8me, an agency of Ford admiringly that he “knows how to make a woman

representing stylists and hair and makeup artists. She has a bad bitch.”) Olivier Rousteing of Balmain likens her to

a passionate interest in beauty and often scouts her own Michael Jackson, David Bowie, and Prince: “Whether

talent on Instagram. masculine or feminine, she makes it sexy. She has this

In the midst of all this, she somehow found time to take strength and modernity.”

a role in Valérian and the City of a Thousand Planets, a ilm She seems very comfortable in the role. Just consider

based on a French comic series. Directed by Luc Besson, the dress she wore to accept the Fashion Icon Award from

it costars Dane DeHaan and Delevingne and is due out in the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2014, a

2017. Speaking by phone, Besson is reluctant to give too sheer, Swarovski-encrusted ishnet number by Adam Sel-

much away about her character, except man that left little to the imagination. “I

to say that her personality changes “every “I always wanted just liked it better without the lines un-
fifteen seconds.” “As you can imagine, derneath. Could you imagine the CFDA

because she’s number one in her business, to do what my dress with a bra? I would slice my throat.
she has a protection, like a crocodile,”the brothers were doing. I already wanted to, for wearing a thong
director says of Rihanna. “But she really that wasn’t bedazzled. That’s the only

let herself go. I was so touched by her.” I always wanted to regret I have in my life.” Wearing a thong
Earlier at the house, two men in suits play the games they that wasn’t bedazzled is your greatest re-
gret in life? “To the CFDA awards. Yes.”
arrived from the Recording Industry As-

sociation of America to present Rihanna played and play Nearly a year later, on the Met gala’s
with two plaques: one certifying Anti’s rough and wear pants 2015 red carpet, so-called naked dresses
platinum status, the other commemorat- were rocked by Jennifer Lopez (Atelier

ing a benchmark she reached last July, and go outside” Versace), Kim Kardashian West (Roberto
when she became the irst artist in history Cavalli), and Beyoncé (Givenchy Haute

to reach 100 million downloads online. (In Couture by Riccardo Tisci). And what was

another sign of the turbulent state of the music industry, re- Rihanna in? A magniicently regal nearly ten-foot, 55-pound

ports will later cast doubt on Anti’s platinum status, pointing canary-yellow cape that took the Chinese couturier Guo Pei

out that the RIAA took into account one million giveaways two years to make, and which Rihanna sourced herself, on the

that were part of the Samsung deal.) Rihanna seems genu- Internet. “She really loves to experiment with silhouettes and

inely surprised by the accolades. “In lats and sweats!” she texture and styles, but when something works, she is ready to

says, stretching out a leg. “If only I knew they were coming, run in the other direction,” says her head stylist, Mel Otten-

I would’ve at least put on a cute little thing.” berg, who appears in many of the photographs of Rihanna

With the sudden release of “Formation” during Anti’s that night, carrying the cape’s massive embroidered train.

week of ascendance up the charts, it’s no wonder the Internet “My tux was covered in yellow feathers,” he says.

is pitting Beyoncé and Rihanna against each other. But that’s Back on Wall Street, Rihanna’s mom, Monica, told a re-

not how Rihanna thinks. “Here’s the deal,” she says. “They porter that her daughter has long been a chameleon. “You

just get so excited to feast on something that’s negative. never knew what she would want,” said Braithwaite, herself

Something that’s competitive. Something that’s, you know, sporting a short platinum chop. “One time she wanted to

a rivalry. And that’s just not what I wake up to. Because I can have pants, another time she wanted to have a lot of frills.

only do me. And nobody else is going to be able to do that.” Always changing. Always switching it up. She’s always been

like that.” Braithwaite is sitting with Rihanna’s younger

On an icy February night in New York, a brothers, Rajad and Rorrey, and her grandfather, who is PHOTOGRAPHED AT THE HOME OF CARLTON AND DAVID GEBBIA
line gathers outside 23 Wall Street, once wearing a Roc Nation hoodie and hat.
the headquarters of J.P. Morgan’s bank-
ing empire and tonight the venue for the The room darkens. Models appear through a haze of
Fashion Week debut of Fenty, the new smoke and bound down the runway, through an “arctic
urban forest,” as hairstylist Yusef Williams describes it,

Puma collection by Rihanna, who was in gothic streetwear with samurai flourishes. Luxe and

named women’s creative director of the futuristic, the collection references Hood by Air as well as

sportswear company in late 2014. Inside, Naomi Campbell, Rihanna’s own nonchalantly glamorous, globe-trotting life-

Chris Rock, and the rapper Wale are inding their seats. style. “Like if the Addams Family was wearing gymwear,”

Rihanna isn’t the irst music celebrity to try her hand at she’ll tell me later. The inal piece, a black oversize faux-fur

fashion design. But how involved was she in the process? hoodie, is worn by Gigi Hadid, who closes the show as a gor-

“Very dedicated,” the CEO of Puma, Björn Gulden, says geous frostbitten witch, with matte black lips and streaks of

backstage. “She picked every single fabric,”says Melissa Bat- white paint in her hair. Not one for understatement, Kanye,

tifarano, the design director behind the collection, motioning whose own new album and fashion show were presented

to a table of high-end do-rags, nineties chokers (a signature the day before at Madison Square Garden, will review

Rihanna accessory), and faux-fur fanny packs. (This echoes the show on Twitter: “Wow C O N T I N U E D O N PAG E 2 8 7

234

SUCCESS

STORY

While recording
Anti, Rihanna also
found time to create
her own imprint,
acquire the masters of
her previous albums,
and strike a one-
of-a-kind deal with
Samsung. Marchesa
bralette. In this story:
hair, Yusef; makeup,
Mark Carrasquillo; set
design, Bette Adams
for Mary Howard
Studio. Details, see
In This Issue.

CLOUD ATLAS

Like the clothes,
the art-sanctuary
terrain of Las Pozas—
both man-made and
not—is worlds away
from the ordinary.
Model Grace Hartzel
wears a Gucci koi-
pond embroidered
dress complete
with fish and lily
pads; select Gucci
boutiques. Details,
see In This Issue.

Fashion Editor:
Camilla Nickerson.

WELCOME

TO

THE

A LUSH, SCULPTURE-STREWN GARDEN OF EDEN IN
THE MOUNTAINS OF CENTRAL MEXICO MAKES A TORRID

SETTING FOR THE SEASON’S MOST SULTRY (AND,
SOMETIMES, SURREAL) FLOWERS–BY–FRIDA KAHLO LOOKS.

PHOTOGRAPHED BY MIKAEL JANSSON.

JUNGLE

THE REAL

MACAW

Many of these looks
brilliantly channel
both the elegance and
the fearless quirk of
Schiaparelli c. 1934.
Lanvin jersey dress,
$4,590; select Saks
Fifth Avenue stores.
Earrings by Givenchy
Haute Couture by
Riccardo Tisci and Lulu
Frost. Brooches by
Sonia Rykiel, Miriam
Haskell, and Lulu
Frost. Gaspar gloves.

POWER FLOWER 239

Can there be a bloom
of the moment? We think
yes—and right now, it’s
the poppy (stronger than
a hothouse orchid, more
wayward than a rose). Dolce
& Gabbana swimsuit, $545;
select Dolce & Gabbana
boutiques. Chanel cuffs.
Details, see In This Issue.

BEAUTY NOTE
A bold lip adds an edge to
spring’s prettiest florals.
The Estée Edit by Estée
Lauder’s mulberry-hued
Barest Lipcolor in Nude
Scene blends flower waxes
for a natural sheen.

240

JUNGLE RED

Harking back to the
cinematic drama of the
1940s, wicked-woman
scarlet is the essential

statement color for
the passionate and the

artistically inclined.
Marc Jacobs patent
leather skirt ($4,800)
and silk blouse ($1,800);
select Marc Jacobs
stores. Dries Van Noten
embroidered bra, $590;
Barneys New York,
NYC. Chanel belt. Tom
Ford ankle-strap heels.
Details, see In This Issue.

SELF PORTRAIT

WITH MONKEY

The folkloric accent
here isn’t just in the
blunt Aztec-inspired
haircut but in the
peasant sleeves as
well. Céline cotton
poplin top ($1,800)
and skirt ($2,600);
Céline, NYC. Alexander
McQueen cuffs.

SOCIAL
BUTTERFLY
When-Dalí-met-
couture motifs—
the disembodied
hands, the kiss
print—are witty,
wonderfully chic,
and not too weird.
Bally silk blouse,
$1,195; Bally,
NYC. Sonia Rykiel
earring. Fallon
pearl earring and
nose ring. Details,
see In This Issue.

243

FEMME
FATALE

In its construction,

this corset dress—
with a va-voom
bandeau at the

chest—is a classic
hourglass. The
addition of an

exposed bra raises
the temperature to
scorching. Oscar de

la Renta silk-cady
dress, $3,290;

select Oscar de la
Renta boutiques.

Dawnamatrix
gloves. Details,
see In This Issue.



SIGN
LANGUAGE
Hands and gloves
(with or without
sequin “fingernails”)
were among
Schiaparelli’s
trademarks. Here,
slightly kinky latex
iterations signal
an emphatic
independent streak.
Chanel dress; select
Chanel boutiques.
Dawnamatrix
gloves. Miu Miu
platform shoes.

246

ADULT SWIM

Corseted structures

made a return on
many runways.

Maison Margiela uses
shirring, underwiring,

and a low hip line
on a black-and-

white lily one-piece
(available at Maison

Margiela, NYC) for
a supersophisticated

alternative to skin,
skin, skin. Details,
see In This Issue.

WINGED

VICTORY

Hummingbirds and
flamingos are the

natural companions
of all these tropical
flowers. And they’re
to be found, in
rainbow array, on

Alexander McQueen’s
embroidered dress

(available at Alexander
McQueen, NYC). In

this story: hair, Shay
Ashual; makeup,
Hannah Murray.

Photographed at Las
Pozas, Xilitla, with
Fundación Pedro y
Elena Hernández,
A.C. Details, see
In This Issue.

SET DESIGN, NICHOLAS DES JARDINS FOR MARY HOWARD STUDIO; PRODUCED BY MARCUS WARD FOR NORTH SIX.

249

Free

Style

Nineteen-year-old Katie Ledecky has
emerged as a once-in-a-lifetime

phenomenon, breaking multiple world
records in races short and long.

What’s her secret? asks Robert Sullivan.
Photographed by Annie Leibovitz.

ne of the reasons it POOL SHARK
is diicult to see precisely what makes Katie Ledecky perhaps
the greatest athlete in America, and maybe the planet, is As the Rio games
that when she comes out of her house it is dark, as in very approach, swimming
dark, as in 4:25 in the morning. Naturally, conversation at sensation Ledecky
this hour is limited: The swimmer is under the hood of her trains up to 30
parka and savoring those last few moments before the 5:00 hours per week.
a. . plunge, while her father, David Ledecky, who is ferrying “She doesn’t have
her to practice, is DJ-ing a little classic rock, as fathers driv- a lot of time on
ing their nineteen-year-old daughters anywhere typically do. land,” her father
says. Hair, Braydon
Ninety minutes and thousands of strokes later, at the Nelson; makeup,
pool at Georgetown Prep, in Bethesda, Maryland, where Asami Taguchi.
Ledecky trains six days a week, it’s easy to spot the swim-
mer who has broken her own world record in the 800-meter Sittings Editor:
Phyllis Posnick.
250

P HOTO G RA P HE D AT T HE STON E RI D G E SC HO O L O F T HE SAC RED HE A RT. S ET D ESIGN, MARY H OWAR D.

freestyle an astounding four times since 2013. She is the six- pressure?’ ” She shakes her head and rolls her eyes, long-

foot-tall woman powering through her laps alongside the limbed and friendly in person, with nut-brown hair and a

men, a few lanes away from the rest of the women. Seated wide smile. “And I really don’t feel it. I’ve just always set goals.

in the stands is the swimmer’s mother, Mary Gen (short for When I was a kid, I would write them down, and I would

Mary Genevieve), who doesn’t get into the particulars of work toward them, and that’s still pretty much what I do. In

her daughter’s technique. “You should ask Katie,” she says. 2013, I sat down with my coach, and my goals are set through

“I wonder what she’ll say. We try to stay out of strategies. 2016, though since then a few things have been added.”

We just try to make sure she’s happy.” “You used to put them up in your room,” her mom says

To that end, Mary Gen Ledecky sprints from the pool from the driver’s seat.

before practice is over, places an order on her phone, and “They’re just not in my room now,” Ledecky says. “I have

drives to the Ledeckys’ favorite deli, Ize’s, to pick up break- a reminder somewhere, but I am not going to tell where.”

fast. Does the Olympian order special Her fans (and they are legion, and

açai powders or protein shakes that were “I don’t know if she has they are swimming in high school pools
originally tested by NASA? Does she the world over) see her as the poster

favor anything that gives a clue as to any weaknesses,” woman for optimistic self-discipline,
how a person can win only gold medals Olympic gold medalist with 20 to 25 hours per week in the pool
since her 2012 Olympic debut as a if- and about five hours of work in the

teen-year-old? Or how, given her subse- Missy Franklin said. gym. An example of this work ethic: In
quent golds in the 200-, 400-, 800-, and “If she does, we haven’t 2014, she tells me, achieving her world-
1,500-meter freestyle races at the FINA record-setting mile speed was not only

World Championships in Russia last seen them yet” not easy but painful—she drove her-
August, she pulled off a first-time-in- self very hard to win. “That hurt,” she

history coup that, by the way, set world says. She kept pushing herself, though.

records in the 800 and 1,500, when people had thought that “Now my speed from 2014 becomes my easy speed.”

maybe she was good only at short distances? (“I don’t know This is the extent of her secret weaponry: a devotion to

if she has any weaknesses,” Olympic gold medalist Missy practice, to superhuman goals achieved with a low-key,

Franklin said recently. “If she does, we haven’t seen them family-supported routine, one that involves watching

yet.”) Sportswriters are pulling muscles trying to explain the CNN after dinner and maybe a little on-demand SNL

signiicance of this four-event sweep by Ledecky, which is while doing all the big reading for school on the weekend,

akin to a runner’s taking the gold in the 100-yard dash and so she can get to bed by nine-thirty. “She’s extraordinarily

then doing the same for the marathon. “Katie wants an om- ordinary in some respects,” says her older brother, Michael,

elet,”says her mom. “She doesn’t really eat anything special.” 21, a senior at Harvard and an editor for the Crimson.

“I mean, the way she carries herself, the way she goes

L edecky seemed to swim from nowhere about things—there’s no drama or anything like that. She’s
to win a gold at the London Olympics just always very dialed-in and doesn’t let the extraneous
four years ago, and her trail of gold things, whether it’s expectations or anything else, get in
medals and broken world records her way.” Katie credits the dozens of Stratego games she
since is like nothing seen before. Even played against Michael in London before her swims with
though you might search for that one preparing her mentally for her Olympic gold, and cites his
special thing—as everyone surely will if diligence as her inspiration. “I’ve always looked up to my
she takes as many medals in Rio as an- brother, for how hard he works,” she says. “I started swim-

ticipated (and breaks some more world ming with him, and we had a lot of fun.”

records)—Ledecky’s trick will likely remain elusive. Her Her poolside rep is that of the teammate who sticks

coach, Bruce Gemmell, irst met her at the 2012 Olympics; around for other people’s races; even a little before 7:00

his son, Andrew, was on the 2012 Olympic team and now a. ., she is impressively upbeat. On the quick drive home to

trains with Ledecky. “Her strength is not in any physical at- the Ledeckys’ cozy Colonial in Bethesda, there’s only time

tribute,” says Gemmell. “It’s not even in any particular tech- to discuss the barest of the day’s logistics because when her

nique. It’s in her overwhelming desire to do what she needs mother pulls into the driveway, Katie is up the stairs and into

to do to get better.” Sure, she does the little things, makes bed, to sleep for an hour before her classes at Georgetown

the technical changes—working hard on her tempo and her University. Her father, an attorney, is in the kitchen. “She

stroke count, along with adjusting her kick—and she does doesn’t have a lot of time on land,” he says.

her share of training in the gym and meets with a nutritionist While the Olympian sleeps, her parents recount Katie’s

to supplement her Ize’s habit. “As far as I’m concerned, the history in the pool. Mary Gen, who had herself been a

bigger story is that she’s a better person than she is a swim- championship swimmer in college, was looking for a place

mer,” Gemmell continues. “We all know she’s a pretty good for the family to swim in the D.C. area, where, it turns out,

swimmer, but she’s just a better person.” competitive swimming has deep roots. (The irst pool she

What is most evident at swim meets, in fact, is exactly what tried had a seven-year waiting list.) When Mary Gen inally

is not happening, Ledecky’s Zen-like way of avoiding stress. landed a membership at a club, she realized her kids knew

She is not about to be so rude as to ignore the question that none of the other children there, and so out of parental

is asked of her over and over, but in her of time—in the car desperation an Olympic hopeful was born. “Hey,” Mary

on the way home from morning practice, anyway—Ledecky Gen said, “do you guys want to join the swim team?” Two

seems perplexed. “People always ask, ‘Don’t you feel the big road-to-the-Olympics moments: an early race in which

252