Vogue

CALM WATERS
The champion is known for maintaining preternatural tranquillity under extreme pressure.

six-year-old Katie grabs on to the lane lines for support 800-meter in Austin in January, another swimmer was
(an extremely cute home video conirms this), and great overheard saying, “Channel the SEAL, Katie!”
disappointment on Katie’s part that same year when an
ear infection nearly prevented her from reaching her irst Post-nap, Katie goes to lunch in Georgetown, at the
in a long line of goals, to race all the way across the pool Tombs, one of the family’s favorite restaurants. As she
without stopping. (Her doctor suggested earplugs.) Today, works through a chicken salad, she happily talks about
it’s all Rio, all the time. old races, remembering, eventually, the world-record-
breaker in Russia last year that happened in a preliminary
“I don’t know how she does it. I mean, it’s a grind,” says 1,500-meter freestyle, accidentally! She’s laughing and
her mother. looking a little amazed herself, still, as she remembers how
it went. “My coach told me to swim the first 900 meters
“I don’t either,” says her father. “We’re biased, but she’s a easy, and then to build over the next 300, and then the inal
great kid.” 300 was going to be my call,” she says. “And then word
started getting around that I was just going easy. That be-
Katie’s scholarship to Stanford begins this fall; she de- came the joke. ‘Hey, Katie, let’s see what your easy is!’ ”
ferred for a year to train for the Olympics. Last fall, when
I visited, she was enrolled in two classes at Georgetown: Somehow, as she remembers it, the teasing did some-
Chinese history and politics. “They keep me mentally en- thing: It put her at ease going into the race and then opened
gaged,” she says. As Rio approaches, she’d like to hang out a pathway to full-on power. In the last stretches, she re-
with friends from home, many of them former swim-team members, she could see the American swimmers’ families,
mates from the Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart, including her own. The stadium was nearly empty since it
her Catholic high school alma mater, but given all the de- was a mere preliminary race. Her mother was chatting with
mands of her training, there’s not a lot of time for social- a friend, then turned her attention to Michael, who was
izing or dating. Katie loves dressing up for the occasional watching his sister. “It looks like she might do something
swimming-awards event: She leans toward tailored dresses special here,” he said. And then Katie could hear the crowd
in a nautical palette of black, navy, and cream. Katie just roar, and as she looked out of the water on each breath,
barely had time to sneak in a book recently, Living with she focused on the father of another swimmer who was
a SEAL, in which the author trains with a Navy SEAL. furiously waving her on. Katie smiles about it. “The joke is
“It’s got a lot of bad language, but it’s a great book,” she that he’s still icing his shoulder,” she says.
says. Just before Katie broke her own world record in the

253



Since their electrifying win at last year’s
World Cup, the U.S. women’s team has ignited

soccer mania. Reluctant striker Hamish
Bowles trains with star scorer Alex Morgan.

Photographed by Annie Leibovitz.

 Iwas the ultimate tomboy,”says women’s-soccer
supernova Alex Morgan, remembering her child-
hood self. “I’m supercompetitive. I wanted to
beat the boys at everything, I wanted to be faster;
I wanted to be stronger.”
I, on the other hand, was the ultimate sissy.
“He’s got footballer’s knees!” exulted my father
at the very moment of my first appearance in
this world. Unfortunately for him, I showed no
interest whatsoever in the Beautiful Game. I don’t
remember anyone ever teaching me how to play;
in England it was simply assumed that every boy
would understand the rudiments of the sport.
(Girls weren’t part of the equation at that time: They had netball,
rounders, and hockey to keep them occupied.)
In a doomed attempt to hook me in, Dad took me, aged ten, to
watch his beloved local team, Hendon, play in the Amateur Cup
semiinal. I vividly recall my father’s disquieting transformation
from mild-mannered accountant to Tasmanian Devil, hurling
invective, forbidden swear words, and spittle at the hapless play-
ers below. Not long after, Dad had to bribe me to attend a white
hot–ticket Liverpool vs. Chelsea match with the promise of a trip
to the antiques market of Portobello Road the following morning.
In 1999, when Morgan was ten, the U.S. Women’s National
soccer team, led by Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, and Michelle Akers,
won the FIFA Women’s World Cup, 5–4, against China. From

MASTER CLASS

Bowles endured sprint drills and sliding tackles at the
knee of an American great. He and Morgan wear Official

U.S. Soccer gear by Nike. Details, see In This Issue.

Sittings Editor: Karen Kaiser.

255

that point on, she was hooked. At sixteen, already a star on Savile Row tweeds and elaborate tattoos) what advice he
her Diamond Bar, California, high school soccer team, she might have for me. David is a man of few words, but they
felt that her childhood dream of making it as a professional are usually well chosen. “Listen to the girls,” he counseled.
player was an achievable goal. “They’re the most driven athletes I’ve ever known, and their
success is showing it. They know better than most of the
My achievable soccer goal, meanwhile, was to continue guys. Listen to them—and run fast!”
avoiding the ball at all costs. In my irst term at high school
I was inexplicably picked for the irst eleven—the elite soc- Heeding his advice, I begin my odyssey
cer team—presumably because I could run fast. I briely by lying to Los Angeles to work with
served as goalkeeper, a role in which I displayed astonishing Dawn Scott, the revered trainer respon-
thespian, if not athletic, skills as I pretended to miss the sible for keeping the U.S. women’s team
ball by inches as it pelted toward me at breakneck speed. in fighting and winning form. In the
Mostly, though, I just loitered about on the outskirts of the spirit of that person who does a spring
ield with my best friend, gossiping away and admiring our clean before the housekeeper arrives,
imaginary nail varnish as the ball and the rest of the players I book in for some pre-training sessions beforehand.
went whizzing past. Never, then, in my wildest teen dreams
did I expect that one day I would be gossiping away and I meet my fetching Brazilian-Swedish trainer, Daniel
having my nails done alongside one of the most admired Söderström, in the prettily landscaped gardens surround-
and lauded soccer players in America. ing the La Brea Tar Pits on the grounds of the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art. He has set up a loor ladder, cones,
Morgan is understandably dumbfounded by the pitiful and a series of nets and goal posts under the shade of a
trajectory of my soccer odyssey, with its pattern of resis- spreading maple tree next to a pit in which a prehistoric
tance to the sexist norm. “It’s almost the complete opposite sloth was once trapped, an ominous metaphor for my own
for women soccer players,” the 26-year-old explains. “We’re speed if ever there was one.
dying to play and people are telling us, ‘You can’t play.’
I almost wish I’d been forced into it, instead of my having Söderström and I work on my “cognitive skills,” which
to ight for it!” are sadly, if not surprisingly, wanting: I can’t quite connect
my foot to the ball. When I inally make contact, I kick it so
I conide in Morgan that I am being forced into the sport wide of any of the goals that it hits the maple tree’s trunk
again now, for the irst time since those early teenage morti- with a force that sends half a dozen squirrels hurtling from
ications. The assignment would be tolerable were it not for its sheltering limbs.
the childhood traumas keeping me awake at night. But if
England’s Sir Stanley Matthews, a mid-century star revered Two days later, I meet Scott in the StubHub Center in
by Dad for his dribbling skills, was still playing at 50, the balmy Carson, where she is putting Morgan’s teammate
least I could do was give it a go. Christen Press through her paces. Growing up, Press tells

We start off with a“Turkish get-up,”which,sadly, is not some fabulous sable-trimmed
robe to prance around Topkapi Palace in, but a grueling warm-up exercise

My friend Simon Doonan was able to provide further reas- me, she thought, “Soccer’s so fun because you have all your
surance: He is currently writing a book about soccer through friends. You come to practice and you talk about everything
the lens of fashion and style, a project that I am at least half- and you’re running and gossiping. It’s like social hour!”
interested in. “There’s nothing I don’t know about George If only I had looked at it that way myself.
Best’s cleats,” Doonan told me over our pep-talk lunch.
Scott, who wears her ine, laxen hair pulled back sensibly,
“It’s a stat-mad world, so I’m looking for correlations hails from the no-nonsense north of England, where she
where fashion-obsessed players score more goals!” He “grew up playing on the streets with the boys.”She fondly re-
supports his thesis by citing style-crazed players including members her father taking her to the local Newcastle games
A.C. Milan’s Mario Balotelli (and his camoulage-wrapped during the era of the charismatic Kevin “Mighty Mouse”
Bentley Continental GT); Paris Saint Germain’s Zlatan Keegan, famed for his Barbra Streisand–in–Evergreen perm.
Ibrahimovic´ (who favors Rick Owens and a man bun);
and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, who arrives for Scott’s training programs are customized to each play-
training carrying a Gucci wash bag tucked under his arm er, taking into account age and injury history. The ath-
like a minaudière. letes, based all around the country with their local teams
when they are not training for the U.S., contribute their
The ultimate football fashionisto, of course, is David information—including diet and all-important sleep
Beckham, who practically minted the concept of the me- recovery—to a central online database so that Scott and
trosexual male with his unquestioning embrace of fashion. head coach Jill Ellis can download it at the end of the day
“I like nice clothes, whether they’re dodgy or not,” Beck- and monitor the GPS and the heart rate of all the players,
ham has said, and who can forget his brave experiments along with their speed, agility, and itness levels, and adjust
with faux-hawks and sarongs? the routines accordingly. “It’s a daily ongoing process,” says
Scott. “You’re dealing with 25 diferent personalities. You
As it happens, I recently found myself at an intimate can’t expect they’re all going to be the same.”
Manhattan dinner party with Victoria Beckham and her
husband, and I thought that I would seize the day and Now it’s my turn to become intimately acquainted with
ask the glamorous soccer legend (impeccable that night in Scott’s all-star program. I start with forward-bend walks “to

256

switch on the glutes and core,” according to Scott, who then hooded sweatshirt, and a practical Marc Jacobs purse in
introduces me to something iendish called a “Turkish get- navy and putty. Morgan has been thrice to the New York
up,” which, sadly, is not some fabulous sable-trimmed robe fashion shows and shops at Veronica Beard, Rag & Bone,
to prance around Topkapi Palace in, but a grueling warm-up and AllSaints. “A lot of fashion is now very athletic-looking,
exercise. Press does the movements with sleek balletic grace so that’s cool for me,” she says. “When I am traveling, I need
and a ifteen-pound weight held aloft as though it were a my basics with something that makes my outit stand out.
dandelion clock. Scott coolly assesses my form and hands It needs to be packable and interchangeable.”
me a shoe to work with instead.
Morgan proselytizes for her sport not only through her
We follow up with trap-bar work, power cleans, dead astonishing performances on the ield (she is famed for her
lifts, squats, kettle bells, Bulgarian splits, down slides, late heroics—like scoring the winning goal against Canada
mountain climbers, and box jumps. “This takes months, in the 2012 Olympics semiinal game in London in the 123rd

Morganhasbarelytwoandahalfweekswithout training every year.
“It goes by incredibly fast—faster than you would ever want it to go! ” she says

years to learn the technique,” Scott says reassuringly. “I minute) but also via her motivational autobiography, Break-
don’t want you to feel fatigued too soon.” Frankly, I am away: Beyond the Goal, and her popular series of soccer nov-
already wiped out. “Let’s do two diferent exercises,” she els aimed at middle school kids. In addition to playing and
adds cheerily, “and then we will go out to the ield.” Gawd, writing, she is a forceful lobbyist for equality in a sport where
I’d almost forgotten that bit. sexism is still shockingly rampant, if not institutionalized.

A typical field session begins with a good warm-up Late last year Morgan and her teammates Shannon
and might include some speed work, then high-intensity Boxx and Julie Johnston were invited to join a roundtable
interval training. “You run 90 yards, which should take at the Forbes Under 30 Summit in Philadelphia, where
you ifteen seconds, and you rest for ifteen seconds. You they discussed the inequality in the game. The $265,000
do twelve of those,” Scott says. I am trying to take this salary cap for women’s national-league soccer players, for
alarming information on board, but I am also soaking up instance, is less than one tenth that for men’s major-league
the beauty of the ield, fringed with eucalyptus and palm soccer players. (International male supernovas Lionel Messi
trees and blissfully unlike any of the frigid muddy pitches and Cristiano Ronaldo, meanwhile, take home around
I remember from childhood. $1,000,000 a week.) After the U.S. women’s thrilling 2015
World Cup victory, it was revealed that they were awarded
After four runs, my heart rate is at a pounding 194. “Train- $2 million; the German men’s team received $35 million
ing like this is really, really hard,” Press tells me. “Training after winning the 2014 cup. “I think players need to get paid
until you’re about to throw up every single day—it’s kind of for what they’re worth, for what they put up on the ield,”
miserable, actually. But that makes it so much more fun when Morgan told the summit.
you come back together as a team.”
At 21, Morgan was the youngest player on the team for
T wo months later, Scott’s good work undone the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup, and was subsequently
by holiday dining and indolence, I am in named U.S. Soccer Female Athlete of the Year in 2012 and
Orlando, Florida, having my nails done placed third in the FIFA Ballon d’Or—essentially the world
alongside Alex Morgan, a player so starry soccer MVP—that same year. At the ceremony, FIFA’s
that her new team, the Orlando Pride, was absurd and controversial president Sepp Blatter, who had
essentially created around her in 2015. Her earlier suggested that women players should wear “tighter
husband, midielder Servando Carrasco shorts”to improve the game’s popularity, failed to recognize
(they met almost a decade ago, when they were both playing Morgan. (A sense of Schadenfreude might have washed
soccer at University of California, Berkeley), had recently over the women’s locker rooms when Blatter was forced to
transferred to Orlando City. Servando has been moving them step down from his position at FIFA earlier this year after
into their new house, as his wife only returned yesterday after proceedings were iled against him for “criminal mismanage-
three months on the road. “It looks so pretty,” Morgan says ment . . . and misappropriation” by the Swiss authorities.)
of their home, “but I had never actually been to the house
or the neighborhood, so it was kind of a weird experience.” There seems to be sexism afoot, too, in the fact that the
(She worked with a realtor and FaceTime.) “My husband seven U.S. women’s World Cup matches in Canada were
got traded to Houston, and then here, and each time he had played on artiicial rubber and plastic turf, even though
to ind a place within 48 hours. The life of professional ath- most of the players had spent their careers playing on grass.
letes—you have to live your life on the go!” Morgan shrugs. Turf is exponentially harder on the body and can lead to
“But I’m living with him for the irst time since college, so I impact injuries, and it discourages daring moves like slid-
don’t really care where we are—we will make it work!” ing tackles. There is no hooliganism in women’s soccer,
however, and homophobia is a non-starter. “Gone are the
Morgan may just have come from her hour-and-45-minute days that you need to come out of a closet,” said Abby
morning workout, but she is looking prom-queen perfect, as Wambach (star of four World Cup tournaments and two
beits this poster girl for women’s soccer. She wears orchid Olympic Games), who was surprised at the media scrutiny
purple leggings that showcase her legendarily toned and when she married her long-term partner, Sarah Hufman,
muscular legs, her favorite Nike trainers in tangerine, a gray in 2013. “I never felt like I was in a closet.”

257

FIGHTING FORM

With the Olympics
in August, Morgan’s
punishing training
schedule typically
brings her to the field
twice a day. Morgan in
Nike. In this story: hair,
Peter Gray; makeup,
Benjamin Puckey.
Production design,
Mary Howard. Details,
see In This Issue.

W hen Morgan and her team-
mates trounced Japan 5–2 last
summer, more than 25 million
people tuned in—the highest
rating ever for any American
soccer match, male or female.
Since then, the U.S. team
has played to crowds that average 24,000—the biggest for
women’s sports anywhere in the world. “They want to watch
something fun on the ield, and I think other cultures are so
opposed to that, they won’t even give it a chance,”says Mor-
gan. “If they did, I think they would enjoy it.”

If Morgan collegially wants the other international teams
to improve their game, however, she clearly has no inten-
tion of letting her own go slack, and with the Olympics in
August, the schedule is punishing. Morgan has barely two
and a half weeks without training every year. “It goes by
incredibly fast—faster than you would ever want it to go!”
she says. She spends the downtime doing yoga, practicing
meditation, and playing beach volleyball.

These days she is watching her diet as never before. “As I
have gotten a little older, you notice that what you put in your
body actually afects your energy,”she says. “I know we need
carbs to burn of energy to play, but I eat more proteins and
grains like couscous and quinoa, and I will do rice, but I try
to limit the bread and the unnecessary stuf. I used to eat red
meat all the time, but now I try to eat it only once a week; it is
really hard to digest compared with chicken and ish.”I sense
one small area of commonality.

Morgan praises her trainer, Scott, with whom she has
worked for six years. “She just knows her stuff so well
and she works you hard, but you feel you’re getting some-
thing out of it.” After my own exertions in Los Angeles,
I certainly got an acute sense of Scott’s much-vaunted
insistence on sleep recovery.

The Orlando soccer ield Morgan and I go to for our
training session the following day is framed with palmetto
palms and trees dripping with Spanish moss. In fact, ev-
erything is dripping: It’s pouring with rain. “This is so
Portland right now,” says Morgan with a laugh (she played
with the Portland Thorns for two years before her transfer
to Orlando). Undaunted, she does twelve sprints the length
of the ield and back before working on her dribbling and
goal-kicking skills. As the Olympics close in, Morgan and
her teammates will practice in the morning, then go to the
gym, rest, and train again.

Exhausted as Morgan is after all this, she attempts to
teach me the rudiments of a sliding tackle (luckily it’s a
real grass pitch). I throw myself backward, then forward,
to Morgan’s evident bemusement. Although she trains
children at her Los Angeles soccer camp, she has never
seen “form” like this.

Room for improvement, certainly, but for the irst time in a
half-century I can begin to see a glimmer of the ire that has
smoldered within my father for all these years.

The next time I run into David Beckham, it is ringside
with his beautifully dressed children at his wife’s fall 2016
fashion show in Manhattan. He chuckles at the idea that
I’ve been training.

“How’s those knees?” he asks me, with a twinkle in
his eye.

259

Bo r n

Ethiopia is a running-mad country—but it’s never seen anything
like the Dibabas. Chloe Malle heads to Addis Ababa to meet the fastest

family on the planet. Photographed by Ron Haviv.

to R u n

CATCH THEM IF YOU CAN
FROM LEFT: Sisters Ejegayehu, Genzebe, and Tirunesh

Dibaba, all wearing Nike, and their cousin Derartu
Tulu, in Adidas. Genzebe is expected to win gold in Rio,
while the other three are already Olympic medalists.

he only sound at the top streets of Addis Ababa, where they travel by car to avoid
of the Entoto Mountains is being mobbed. Their arrival at their favorite restaurant, Yod
the thwack of a cowherd’s Abyssinia, is greeted with hushed whispers (“Dee-ba-ba,
staf against the tree trunks Dee-ba-ba”) and reverential stares. The sisters duck under
as he leads his small herd the restaurant’s theatrical thatched straw canopies and take
of oxen home. I am doing a table against the wall, smiling patiently as a young man
my best to keep pace with approaches and asks for a photo. Afterward Tirunesh takes
Tirunesh Dibaba, 30, and out her iPhone 6 Plus—one of the few in the country, bought
her younger sister, Genzebe, in Europe—her cerise-lacquered nails clacking against the
25, two wisplike Ethiopi- screen as she swipes past the photo of chubby Nathan. For
ans with wide smiles and a a night out, she’s neatly coordinated in skinny red jeans, a
black blazer with white piping, and similarly duo-toned
Tiercely close bond who may
be the most formidable fe- wedge sandals. She admits that she loves to shop when she is

male track stars in the world. In the late-afternoon light high competing abroad, particularly on Newbury Street in Boston

above central Addis Ababa, we zigzag between the majestic and at any Michael Kors store. Genzebe, who prefers Zara,

eucalyptus trees, paying heed to the uneven ground below compensates for her timidity with a sweet attentiveness. Her

and staying alert for the not-uncommon hyena sighting—no feet look tiny in black ballerina slippers with grosgrain bows

problem, the sisters assure me, as long as you clap loudly and over the toe box. She has replaced her Garmin GPS training

throw a rock in the animal’s direction. watch with a gold one whose pavé diamond–ringed face takes

The Dibabas’ dominance in the ield of distance running up the entire width of her narrow wrist. Both women have

has captivated the track-and-ield community. “There are braids in their thick hair and giggle while conirming that

a few running families, but not like the Dibabas,” says the they share a hairdresser. Their respect and afection are obvi-

Ethiopian track legend Haile Gebrselassie. These are the ous: Genzebe lives with Tirunesh, sharing a bedroom with

only siblings in recorded history to hold concurrent world her baby nephew, and when she becomes lustered follow-

records, and they are as charm- ing a question about her love life,

ingly unassuming in person as “World records, Olympic Tirunesh protectively steers the
they are fearsome on the track. conversation elsewhere. (For the

The sisters were raised three medals, world championships— record, Genzebe has a boyfriend,
hours south of here, in a tukul, the Dibabas’ accomplishments but he is not a runner, and she
or round mud hut, without are unprecedented in this sport,” doesn’t want to talk about him.)
electricity—their parents sub-
sistence farmers growing teff, When Tirunesh’s husband,
fellow track-and-field Olympic

barley, and wheat. Their mother, says NBC’s Ato Boldon medalist Sileshi Sihine, appears,
Gutu, credits her daughters’suc- cool and handsome in tailored

cess to a loving environment as jeans and a shawl collar cardigan,

well as a steady supply of milk from the family cows. another frisson of excitement ripples through the room. His

In fact there are seven Dibaba siblings, and all of them and Tirunesh’s 2008 wedding ceremony was a nationally tele-

run. “What the Dibabas have is what Serena and Venus have, vised event, drawing half a million people to the city’s main

except there are more of them,” says Ato Boldon, NBC’s square, where Olympic races are broadcast to huge crowds.

track analyst. “It’s not a stretch to say they are the world’s The bride wore a lace-embroidered bustier top and a mille-

fastest family.” Tirunesh is the most decorated, with three feuille tulle ball skirt; the groom, an iridescent gray pin-striped

Olympic gold medals; Genzebe is tipped to win her first morning suit—all purchased on a trip to Milan. They don’t

in Rio. Their older sister, Ejegayehu, 34, is an Olympian, remember the name of the clothier, “but one of the best,”

too, with a silver from Athens, and their cousin Derartu Sihine says authoritatively. “We know people.” Restaurant

Tulu was the irst black African woman to win an Olympic patrons lock their eyes on us as Sihine slips onto the low

gold, in the 1992 games. “World records, Olympic medals, wooden stool next to his wife, squeezing her knee in greeting.

world championships—the Dibabas’ accomplishments are As the string notes of the krar ill the room and dancers

unprecedented in this sport,” says Boldon. take the stage to perform an Ethiopian eskista dance—

With Rio on the horizon, the focus is squarely on Tirunesh a shoulder-snapping feat of timing and rhythm—I ask

and Genzebe. This is Tirunesh’s comeback season after tak- Tirunesh what music she likes to listen to. “Michael Jack-

ing a year of to raise her now one-year-old son, Nathan; son,”she answers with a sly smile. “He is my favorite,”the last

meanwhile, Genzebe had a record-breaking summer, deci- word pronounced in three crisp syllables. At this Genzebe,

mating the competition in August’s world championships breaking her shell of shyness, speaks up: “For me, Beyoncé.”

and winning IAAF’s Athlete of the Year award, a crowning Their status—and status symbols—marks a stark con-

glory in the sport. “Last year Genzebe was head and shoul- trast between the Dibabas and most others in this still highly

ders the best athlete in the world,”says race coordinator Matt impoverished country. Yet Ethiopia has the fastest-growing

Turnbull, who has worked with the Dibabas for almost a economy in sub-Saharan Africa, and Addis, with its ubiq-

decade. “And with Tiru being out for so long now, people are uitous eucalyptus-pole scaffolding and ragged blue con-

excited to see what will happen. They’re a iercely competitive struction tarps, is a riot of development. Like many of the

family, and they really dictate the landscape.” nation’s successful track stars, the Dibabas and their in-laws

As modest (and petite) as the Dibabas are face to face, they have invested their fortunes back into their city; they are

are outsize celebrities on the chaotic, construction-clogged burgeoning real estate tycoons, owning multiple buildings

262

in the capital—including the ive-star Tirunesh Hotel, slated one of Addis’s gated communities. Inside, framed photos of
to open this fall on Bole Road, the Fifth Avenue of Addis. family members on victory podiums take pride of place, and
a lat-screen TV plays yesterday’s Africa Cup soccer match,
Along with Kenya, Ethiopia is a powerhouse for turning but Tirunesh explains that she doesn’t particularly like watch-
out elite runners. According to David Epstein, author of ing sports. She and her sisters prefer Amharic ilms. What
The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athlet- American ilms does she like? “Anything with Angelina Jolie.”
ic Performance, much of the two countries lies in an altitude A large breakfast—traditional Ethiopian irir and eggs—is
“sweet spot”—around 6,000 to 9,000 feet. “High enough to followed by a nap, lunch, and then it’s of to the gym. They
cause physiological changes but not so high that the air is are on two workouts a day until Rio.
too thin for hard training,” Epstein says. As NBC’s Boldon
explains, “When the Dibabas come down to sea level—I’m The air in Entoto, unlike the exhaust-choked streets of Ad-
not going to say it’s like Superman coming from Krypton, dis, is crisp and clean—and also thin at 10,000 feet above sea
but it is a version of that.” There’s also the Ethiopian diet, level. When we gather for our late-afternoon run, the Diba-
with its reliance on the iron- and calcium-rich grain tef, and bas’cousin Tulu arrives on the mountaintop, now retired and
the typical Ethiopian body type, petite and narrow, which is looking more soccer mom than Olympian. The sisters cite her
ideal for the sport: Tirunesh is ive feet three and 110 pounds; as their inspiration, and her lilting voice boomerangs through
Genzebe is ive feet ive and 115 pounds. “They have a lot the trees as they jog together into a cattle clearing. Tulu, who
of fight in a very small lightweight frame,” says Boldon. won the New York City marathon in 2009 at the age of 37,
“If you compared them to a car, they would be a Ford Focus is a gregarious and outgoing foil to the soft-spoken Dibabas.
with a Ferrari engine.” When asked whom she will cheer for if Tirunesh and Genzebe

IT’S ALL RELATIVE

LEFT: Framed pictures fill the Dibaba family home in Addis Ababa. ABOVE: Genzebe, in red, with
Tirunesh and her husband, Sileshi Sihine—also an Olympic runner—and their son, Nathan.

Genzebe’s Ferrari engine is in top gear at Addis’s only compete against each other in Rio in the 5,000 or 10,000, Tulu
track stadium for an 8:00 a. . workout. The sun is already does not hesitate and squeezes Tirunesh’s shoulder. “She! She
high overhead, and she is warming up with her nineteen- is my favorite!” then looks lovingly across at Genzebe: “I am
year-old sister Anna. They move at a focused, steady clip, sorry!”Genzebe remains diplomatic, saying only, “The stron-
their legs in sync, so that from across the track they look like gest will win,” while Tirunesh explains that they likely won’t
one person, Anna’s smaller frame blending into Genzebe’s. be in the same heat and then looks into the sun, which is dip-
As they speed up, moving seamlessly into sprints on the ping behind the crest of the mountain. “But we come to win,
straightaways, Genzebe’s strides are precise, a strict economy so. . . . ” She shrugs; the end of the sentence is unnecessary.
of energy and movement. The two inish the warm-up and
plop down on the tartan track to shimmy out of their Nike There’s an intimacy up here as we jog among the dappled
leggings, casual in their cotton underwear as they pull on eucalyptus, the Ethiopians slowing their pace to a relative
micro shorts, the pink swoosh on Genzebe’s matching her shule while I wheeze from the efort and altitude. “We are
fuchsia Dri-Fit T-shirt. always together,” says Tirunesh. “Maybe one day a week we
aren’t together.” For all of their bashfulness, the sisters share
The ensuing workout is a series of 20 400-meter sprints, a mischievous humor that they sometimes let loose on inter-
timed by a national team coach, who jots down intervals in lopers like myself. At the end of our run in Entoto, Tirunesh,
red ballpoint on his palm. Genzebe shaves of seconds with jogging behind me, yells, “Hyena!”with authoritative urgency.
each rep, her muscles taut as bowstrings as she catapults her- I shriek, whipping my head around. When I look back at the
self across the inish line. Afterward it’s back to Tirunesh and girls, they are doubled over laughing, the only animal in sight
Sihine’s impressive home, a two-story stuccoed mansion in a weary pack mule trudging slowly across the horizon.

263

T I P P I N G the B A L A N C E

Inspired bysuperstar gymnast Simone Biles,GinnyGraves explores the life-enhancing
benefits of poise, posture, and agility. Photographed by Norman Jean Roy.

SET DESIGN, DEARY’S GYMNASTICS SUPPLY I’m trying to improve my balance,”
I tell a friend when she phones and
asks what I’m up to. “Aren’t we
all?” She sighs. “I feel like I’m con-
stantly racing around and never
accomplishing anything.” But I’m
not talking about the eternal quest for work-life equilibrium.
I’m actually standing (ine, wobbling) on my left leg, doing
biceps curls with my right arm, atop a BOSU ball.
Inspiring me is the nineteen-year-old gymnastics star
Simone Biles, whom I watched at the recent world cham-
pionships in Glasgow spinning 900 degrees on one foot on
the balance beam. The most dominant woman in the sport
today, the four-foot-eight powerhouse started racking up na-
tional wins at age thirteen. By now she has a record-breaking
ten world-championship gold medals and is the overwhelm-
ing favorite to bring home the gold in Rio. With her irrepress-
ible grin and warm sense of humor—she tweets jokily several
times a day—she’s also an overwhelming favorite, full stop.
So how does Biles pirouette, leap, and lip on a four inch–
wide beam with such apparent ease? “It helps that I started
when I was six,” she says, recalling the day her class took a
ield trip to Bannon’s Gymnastix in Houston. She began
imitating the students’ cartwheels and lips; her grandpar-
ents, who have raised Biles since she was three (her mother
struggled with addiction), thought the sport would be a
good outlet for their granddaughter. “Simone was super-
hyper and not afraid to try anything,” recalls her grand-
mother Nellie Biles (whom Simone calls Mom). “From the
time she got out of bed in the morning she was jumping and
lipping on the furniture.”
That tremendous energy, Biles believes, is what allows her
to throw jaw-dropping vaults with two-and-a-half twists
and perform a double layout with a half twist in her loor
routine—a feat that is now oicially known as “the Biles.”
The best in her game, she’s beating her nearest competitors
by full integers in a sport where medals are decided by frac-
tions of a point. Judges take routines’ diiculty into account;
hers are so ambitious that even when she makes mistakes, she
earns enough points to come out on top. Last October, at the
world championships, she overrotated on a front lip on the
beam, and in an astounding save grabbed the apparatus with
her hands and righted herself. Despite the error, she brought
home the gold. “On the beam, C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 2 8 7

STEADY NOW

Biles, in a GK Elite Sportswear leotard, credits her surefootedness
to her powers of concentration—and 30 minutes of core work every
day. Hair, Jawara; makeup, Yumi Lee. Details, see In This Issue.
Sittings Editor: Phyllis Posnick.

265

Money
for

Not h i n g

Claire Danes
and John Krasinski
star in the
Public Theater’s
Dry Powder—
a vicious and
hilarious drama
skewering
the people who
skewer our
global economy.
By Adam Green.
Photographed
by Steven Klein.

T he catastrophic results of inancial reckless- a chamber piece, albeit one that goes for the jugular. “I had
ness can be found everywhere these days—in such a strong reaction to the conidence and muscularity
headlines, on movie screens (The Big Short). and precision of Sarah’s writing,” says Kail, who is staging
Now the human cost of ruthless greed is com- the play in the round. “I wanted to get all of us as close to the
ing to the Public Theater in Dry Powder, the action as possible, to create a mini-colosseum where we could
33-year-old Sarah Burgess’s scathingly funny, watch these characters crash into each other.”
remarkably assured play about the battle for the soul of a
private equity irm, starring Claire Danes and—making his Hank Azaria plays Rick, the president of KMM Capital
professional stage debut—John Krasinski. Directing is the Management, which is reeling from a public-relations night-
brilliant Thomas Kail, coming of the triumphs of Ham- mare (massive layofs at a company he acquired taking place
ilton and the live-network-TV broadcast of Grease to helm on the same day he threw himself an extravagant engagement
party featuring a live elephant). Krasinski is Seth, one of

266

Rick’s founding partners, a self-proclaimed good guy who excited to ind her way into a new character after ive years
wants to make things right by acquiring a luggage company of playing Carrie Mathison on Homeland, though she does
and growing it; Danes is Jenny, a inancial Terminator who admit that Jenny and Carrie share some quirks. “They’re
wants to strip the company for its parts. “Seth is this great both incredibly myopic,” she says. “And they’re both dii-
epitome of the human condition,”says Krasinski, for whom cult and not immediately afable, but impassioned. Neither
the play has echoes of Glengarry Glen Ross. “He’s got a moral of them is encumbered by a life or the messiness of human
compass, but at the same time he thinks, You’re all so lucky to relationships—that’s their advantage. I do like that Jenny’s
have someone with my integrity inside the inancial system— not such an open wound, because Carrie is, and that’s pretty
rather than realizing he’s actually a part of that system.” exhausting. I ind Jenny very charming—how can somebody
have such awful values and say things that are so cutting and
Danes is thrilled to be returning to the New York stage still be strangely adorable?”
for the irst time since her 2007 turn in Pygmalion. She’s also

Claire Danes wears an Altuzarra coat. John Krasinski wears a Dior Homme suit and a Paul Smith tie. Menswear Editor: Michael Philouze.
Hair, Bryce Scarlett; makeup, Matin. Set design, Mary Howard Studio. Details, see In This Issue. Sittings Editor: Phyllis Posnick.

The anything-goes food scene in Los Angeles is unconventional, liberated, creative—
and influential as never before. Oliver Strand reports. Photographed by Eric Boman.

EASY

A t one time, a classic dish was a prisoner Los Angeles has a knack for taking the ignored, the
of geography. If you wanted to eat a commonplace, and turning it into something stylish and
true margherita pizza, you had to travel graceful—this is the city of Frank Gehry and John Baldessari
to Naples because the purists would tell and Rodarte, artists and craftspeople who made their names
you even the version you could ind in transforming the overlooked and everyday into high art.
Rome wasn’t quite right; by the time Outsiders have a hard time reading the city where I grew up.
you got to Milan, it was just a cheese At irst they don’t take it seriously—the place seems too obvi-
pizza. But the borders that separate culinary cultures don’t ous, even trashy. But if you tune out the skeptics, parts of this
mean that much anymore. Now you can get a margherita seemingly simple-minded megalopolis emerge as being so chic
at Roberta’s in Brooklyn that would make a grown Italian and perfect that the rest of the world scrambles to keep up.
weep salty tears of joy, or a plate of tacos at Hija de Sanchez
in Copenhagen that could stand up to the stalls in Mexico Still, the restaurant scene here rarely gets the credit it de-
City where the taxis patiently wait. serves. The one in the Bay Area is more legendary, the one
in New York more polished. But a new crop of Los Angeles
Which is why I wasn’t entirely surprised by the croque establishments has been exerting a tangible inluence, with a
madame at Gjusta in Venice Beach. It wasn’t a SoCal play mix of gimmick-free food and airy design that is surfacing
on the French standard, a fusion of Left Coast lavors. It was elsewhere: at Dimes in New York, at La Recyclerie in Paris, at
textbook croque: toasted bread with Mornay sauce (which the London Plane in Seattle. Gjusta is now on the must-visit
is béchamel thickened with cheese), thinly sliced ham, and a list of chefs, bakers, and professional eaters.
sprinkling of Comté, all browned under a broiler and topped
by a fried egg with a thick and oozy yolk. And yet it was “Gjusta kind of blows me away because there are so many
easily the best I had ever tasted, every lavor delivered with moving parts, and seeing it executed in such a manner is so
ringing clarity. Rediscovering the familiar can be chastising impressive. It’s smart, simple, well-made food,” says Ignacio
Mattos, the chef of Estela and the newly opened Café Altro

DOES

(because you realize you’ve had it wrong) and thrilling: This Paradiso, both in New York. “I had the best orange juice that
is an egg, this is ham, this is bread. Rather, this is what egg, I’ve ever had there. I still remember it. It’s one of those things.
ham, and bread can taste like when a kitchen brimming How many do you drink in your life? I’m 36, and I wonder,
with skill and conidence decides to transform a mundane How did I never have an orange juice like this?”
if reliably satisfying dish into something so perfect you will
measure all others against it. According to Liz Prueitt, who started Tartine in San Fran-
cisco with her husband, Chad Robertson, the food in Los
It wasn’t the only standout at Gjusta. What started of Angeles “hits that sweet spot of what’s creative and what’s
as a bakery when it opened in 2014 has evolved into a sun- unexpected, and it’s inspiring a lot of other chefs, whether
illed commissary that cures salmon and ferments hot sauces or not they cook that kind of cuisine. They’re utilizing in-
and roasts large cuts of beef. Marble counters, rough wood gredients that are familiar in unfamiliar ways, and it feels so
loors, skylights cut into the ceiling: It feels less like a kitchen healthy and delicious.” During a recent trip to Los Angeles,
than an atelier. The food comes across as healthy, but it’s Prueitt and Robertson went to Gjusta nearly every day. “You
more wholesome than dietetic. You can get a salad or a grain get the feeling that there’s somebody making food you want
bowl or granola with nut milk; you can also get a croissant to eat, and when they pull something out of the case they’re
or a porchetta melt or a beef-brisket banh mi on bread still going to replace it with something that’s just as delicious.”
warm from the oven. Travis Lett, who owns both Gjusta and
Gjelina, a more traditional restaurant a short drive away, It’s not as easy as it looks. “Simple is the hardest thing you
told me that Gjusta is like a Jewish deli and an Italian deli can do,” Lett told me. “There is a lot you can accomplish
under one roof, but he’s underselling the experience. It’s as with plating or presentation in a restaurant that you just
if you took the best shops from your favorite market streets can’t do here. You can’t hide C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 2 8 9
in London, Paris, San Francisco, and Beirut, and packed
them into a whitewashed warehouse so close to the beach L.A. STORY
you can smell the salt air.
Dishes once seen only in the morning are now free to show
up whenever they please. It’s as if brunch has taken over the
entire day. Pictured here: the classic omelet from Petit Trois.

IT

268



MOMENT OF THE MONTH

CHAMPIONS

PUTTING
ON AIR
After releasing a
couple of attention-
grabbing mix tapes,
Houston-born rapper
Travis Scott debuted
his acclaimed album
Rodeo late last
year. Scott wears a
NikeLab x RT jacket
($225), T-shirt
($75), and shorts
($120); nike.com/
nikelab. Nike tights
and sneakers. Model
Joan Smalls wears
a NikeLab x RT
crop top ($110) and
2-in-1 shorts ($210);
nike.com/nikelab.
Givenchy by Riccardo
Tisci earrings and
shoes. Givenchy Haute
Couture by Riccardo
Tisci bangles. Details,
see In This Issue.
Fashion Editor:
Sara Moonves.

LEAGUE

AMID OUR ONGOING LOVE AFFAIR WITH SPORTS—AND BOASTING
NEW COLLABORATIONS WITH RICCARDO TISCI, KIM JONES,
AND JUN TAK AHAS HI — NIKE STEPS UP INTO FAS HION ’S PREMIERS HIP.
BY ROBE RT SULLIVAN. PHOTOGR APHE D BY GREGORY HARRI S .

n the beginning, sports and in Beaverton, a place where people work with sensor-draped
fashion were two worlds, athletes on treadmills in simulated Brazilian climates. (When
separately created by separate I was in the Nike Sport Research Lab, the sprinter Ryan
Bailey was running at what seemed close to the speed of light
I gods. In 1964, when Bill Bow- while images of his body were being examined in a room
erman shook hands with Phil that looked as if it were supporting the power grid for L.A.)
Knight and set out on the road It struck me that Nike designers were drastically more open
to designing Nike’s now iconic about their interest in fashion than on my visits in years past.
shoes with a waffle iron in a “Do we geek out on Givenchy?”a designer who worked with
kitchen in Oregon (all func- Tisci asked. “Yes.” But they still stress performance as their
tion, very little form), Yves core. “If there were a photo inish between performance and
Saint Laurent was on the verge of debuting a Mondrian style, performance would win, but the two go hand in hand,”
A-line dress that was, conversely, designed not for speed or said Martin Lotti, Nike’s global creative director.
stretching or any kind of performance aside from, say, a
Merce Cunningham premiere. And yet fashion’s beneit to performance remains rel-
Sprint forward to today, when we are all faster, stronger, atively undocumented. “I remember talking to Maria
more flexible in terms of how we move, what we do, and Sharapova, and she was telling me that she will play better
when we do it. Which means that fashion and sports (and if she looks better—that is deinitely a common thread with
the streets that sports live on) have become one world, with athletes we work with,” said Lotti. (When I spoke with the
crossover gods. Today, a young designer like Shayne Oliver Olympic-champion decathlete Ashton Eaton recently, he
starts his career not at the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute seconded: “Feel is connected with physical. I very strongly
Couture, Saint Laurent’s alma mater, but by making T-shirts believe that if something in your mind feels lighter and
and sweatshirts for friends. Alexander Wang is showing neo- faster and makes you feel stronger, that placebo is not a
prene sweats. Rihanna is working with Puma, Kanye with negative thing; it’s a thing that works.”)
Adidas. And now the paradigm shift as Nike, the world’s
top-seeded maker of clothing designed to help break world One way to lure designers is with vintage Nikes. Jar-
records, steps in to play in the world of ready-to-wear. Nike’s rett Reynolds, senior design director of NikeLab, talked
designers haven’t just been hanging out in locker rooms. “We about fashion’s forever interest in shoes like the Air Force
go to a lot of shows,” one of them told me. 1, which Tisci redid (his new-old model, the Dunk Lux
Movement and speed and ease and functionality are now High, came out in February). That shoe’s icon status, Nike
intrinsic to so much that we wear, whether on the ield or argues, came second. “We made a real-deal performance
in an Uber. Thus we have NikeLab, the place where Nike product and the culture adopted it and made it an icon,”
designers work out with that fashion world. Up to now, the Reynolds said. Working on Air Force 1 was a dream for
results have been on the gorgeous side: In her fall/holiday Tisci, afectionately referred to at Nike as a “sneakerhead.”
pieces for NikeLab (she did a spring/summer collection, “If somebody asked you to work on the Sistine Chapel in
too), Sacai’s Chitose Abe took company staples like Wind- Rome, you wouldn’t change it completely—you would just
runners and Tech Fleece and added sheer trapeze pleats modernize it, because it’s so beautiful,” he said.
and proportions that made the pieces seem to ly. Now we
have three NikeLab collections (Summer of Sport, they’re For the new Summer of Sport collection, Nike flew
calling it) set to leave the gate to celebrate the Rio Olym- to Paris, Tisci to Beaverton, where, in the gorgeous gym,
pics—in collaboration with Kim Jones, Jun Takahashi, and he momentarily relived his childhood basketball career,
Riccardo Tisci. even if the shots he took did not relect his prowess as a
These days, everybody wants to work out with a fashion designer (“I hadn’t played in a long time,” he stressed). He
designer. As Apple picked up people from Burberry, Saint got pushed into performance aspects of the design. “We
Laurent, and Gap prior to launching its watch, so Nike made Riccardo uncomfortable,” Reynolds said. The end
Women—the largest women’s athletic brand in the world, result: shorts morphed with tights, kaleidoscopic color
currently weighing in at a valuation of $5.7 billion—is part- prints that no Nike apparel designer would have dared
nering with the fashion world with the goal of gaining about suggest, and botanical nods not only to Brazil but to his
$5 billion in sales by 2020. And then there are the athletes, own upbringing in the south of Italy—all engineered into
who, in a crossover world, are rock stars. “Look,”says Tisci, Nike’s best-selling sports bra. C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 2 8 8
“in the seventies and eighties, sporty people could wear only
sportswear, and artists had to look only dirty and under- GAME CHANGERS
dressed. Today the world has changed, and these kids who
are heroes of sport want to look good—they want to bring With a self-titled debut album that went straight to number one
their own personality to the playground!” and the honor of being the only artist to have his first four singles
To investigate the practicalities of Nike’s fashion partner- simultaneously in the top ten, Fetty Wap has made himself a force
ships, I took a trip out to the company’s world headquarters
to be reckoned with. Fetty wears a NikeLab x Kim Jones jacket
($275), T-shirt ($175), and pants ($225); nike.com/nikelab. Nike
zip-up sweater, $65; nike.com. Model Cameron Russell wears a
NikeLab x Kim Jones top, $175; nike.com/nikelab. Louis Vuitton
Bermuda shorts; select Louis Vuitton boutiques. In this story: hair,
Didier Malige; makeup, Gucci Westman. Details, see In This Issue.

272

PRODUCED BY KATE COLLINGS-
POST FOR NORTH SIX

MOMENT OF THE MONTH

What to Wear Where

TWO SHAKES

Run, don’t walk, to the

Rihanna: Anti World

Tour, stopping at the
Prudential Center in
Newark on April 2. On

Lily Aldridge (NEAR
RIGHT): Tory Sport
shag backpack, $425;
torysport.com. Ralph
Lauren Collection
jumpsuit, $2,990; select
Ralph Lauren stores.
Alix bikini top. Bulova
watch. On Gigi Hadid:
Chanel nylon-and-mesh
backpack, $2,600;
select Chanel boutiques.
3.1 Phillip Lim tank top,
$275; 3.1 Phillip Lim,
NYC. Sportmax pants,
$595; Sportmax, NYC.
Details, see In This Issue.

Fashion Editor:
Tabitha Simmons.

Pa ckLeaders
of
the

It’s the season
of the bold,
brilliant, and
built-to-move
supersatchel.
Gigi Hadid and
Lily Aldridge
take the
brightest of the
bunch on an
energetic romp
for spring.
Photographed
by Patrick
Demarchelier.

What to Wear Where CASING
THE PLACE
Power-lunch in vivid
white and crisp primary
colors at Covina, James
Beard Award winner
Tim Cushman’s new
restaurant, opening this
month in Manhattan’s
Park South Hotel. Dior
bag, $3,700; select Dior
boutiques. Lacoste dress,
$295; lacoste.com.
Bulgari watch.
BEAUTY NOTE
Makeup mishaps
shouldn’t slow you
down. Prevent melting
and fading with a light,
translucent mist of
Maybelline New York’s
Face Studio Master
Fix Setting Spray.

276

CROSSING

THE LINES

This refreshing
combination of
polo plus plaid is
the ultimate preppy
mix for the finals
at the Miami Open
tennis tourney in
Key Biscayne. Stella
McCartney striped
wicker bag ($1,750),
check knit bag,
polo shirt ($675),
and skirt ($1,595);
Stella McCartney,
NYC. Details, see

In This Issue.

What to Wear Where BUCKET LIST
Silky comfort is
the name of the
game here—floaty
skirt, fuss-free top,
holdall bag. It’s a
throw-on-and-go
ensemble perfect
for a double feature
at the Tribeca Film
Festival. Sportmax
suede bag, $795;
Sportmax, NYC.
Victoria Beckham
tank top ($1,150)
and skirt ($2,190);
victoriabeckham
.com. Shinola watch.
AGL sneakers.

278

DANCING ON AIR

Reinvigorate the
shirtwaist look with
oversize sleeves and
contemporary fiery
accents—then grab
a wild cayenne–colored
tote and head out to
NYC’s Joyce Theater
to catch the visiting

Miami City Ballet.
Michael Kors Collection
drawstring bag, $2,990;
select Michael Kors
stores. Public School
jacket ($575) and shorts
($380). Jacket at (212)
302-1108. Shorts at
select Nordstrom stores.
Roger Vivier sneakers.
Details, see In This Issue.

What to Wear Where

CIRCLE UP

Grommets and
pockets and chains,
oh my—this bag has
it all! Sling it over your

shoulder to take in
the Steve McQueen

exhibition at the
Whitney Museum
of American Art.

Versace suede
backpack ($2,995)

and jersey dress
($2,375); select

280 Versace boutiques.

Caeden bracelet.

ZIP CODES

The wonderfully
utilitarian fanny pack
gets a stylish makeover
in molten metallics and
heavy hardware. Pair
it with a graphic tee and
short shorts for a visit
to fitness-cult-favorite

the Class at Taryn

Toomey’s new studio
in Tribeca. Jimmy Choo
belted bag, $1,450;
select Saks Fifth Avenue
stores. Fendi backpack
($2,700) and backpack
charm; select Fendi
boutiques. Longchamp
top ($340) and
shorts ($195); select
Longchamp boutiques.
Bulgari watch. Details,
see In This Issue.

What to Wear Where

LINE ’EM UP

The jagged stripes on
this carryall pouch
(and the bloodred track
pants) fit the mood
for the Broadway
premiere of American
Psycho, starring
Benjamin Walker.
Kenzo snakeskin-print
leather tote bag, $710;
kenzo.com. Chloé
halter top ($950)
and pants ($1,295);
select Neiman Marcus
stores. Vince shoes.

FASHION

FORWARD

You’ll want to stay
conveniently hands-free
to salute the imminently
retiring Kobe Bryant
when the Lakers play
the Clippers at the
Staples Center in Los
Angeles on April 6. Louis
Vuitton backpack; select
Louis Vuitton boutiques.
Proenza Schouler
cropped crewneck top,
$890; Proenza Schouler,
NYC. BCBG Max Azria
shorts, $298; bcbg.com.
Shinola watch. In this
story: hair, Duffy;
makeup, Tom Pecheux.
Details, see In This Issue.

Index 3

EDITOR: EMMA ELWICK-BATES 2

1

Dive 1: COURTESY OF NIKE. 2: COURTESY OF BARNEYS NEW YORK. 3: COURTESY OF CHRISTOPHE
IN! ROBIN. 4: COURTESY OF TYR SPORT. 5: COURTESY OF CH LOÉ. 6: COURTESY OF 1STD IBS.CO M.
TEPEE: NICOLE BOUCHER. BREATHE INN, LANESVILLE, NY. DETAILS, SEE IN THIS ISSUE.
Get ready to take the plunge into
the adventure and romance of
freshwater swimming—the appeal,
you’ll soon find, is crystal clear.

5 6

4

Cool Off

Hit“refresh”in these
winning lakeside locations.

Lake Placid, NEW YORK
Nestled in the woodlands of the
Adirondacks is an aquatic oasis
for swimming, kayaking, waterskiing,
and the like.
WHERE TO STAY: Lake Placid Lodge
Lake Tahoe, CALIFORNIA
The best views of this paradise
on the California-Nevada border
are from the cobalt-blue water.
WHERE TO STAY: Basecamp Hotel
Lake Champlain, VERMONT
Paddle out to one of Lake
Champlain’s approximately 80 islands
for a sun-soaked day of fun.
WHERE TO STAY: Basin Harbor Club
Echo Lake, MAINE
Don’t be fooled by its northern
exposure: Echo Lake Beach’s
shallow depths mean warm
swimming well into the evening.
WHERE TO STAY: The Claremont
Lake Powell, UTAH
Hike, camp, and climb the red rocks
in southern Utah’s canyons,
ending with a dip in Lake Powell—
think dramatic desert without
the dryness.
WHERE TO STAY: Amangiri

7: COURTESY OF HERMÈS. 8: COURTESY OF BOTTEGA VENETA. 9: COURTESY OF 8 9
PRISM. 10: COURTESY OF SANBORN CANOE CO. 11: COURTESY OF ZEUS+DIONE. 7
12: COURTESY OF CRATE & BARREL. 13: GORMAN STUDIO. CLIFF: CARTER SMITH. 1. Nike swim cap, $14;
PRESLEY AND KAIA GERBER, VOGUE, 2015. DETAILS, SEE IN THIS ISSUE. academy.com.
2. Flagpole Swim rash-guard
swimsuit, $450; Barneys
New York, NYC.
3. Christophe Robin
Cleansing Purifying Scrub
with Sea Salt, $52;
sephora.com.
4. TYR Sport goggles,
$20; tyr.com.
5. Chloé sandal, $865;
Just One Eye, L.A.
6. Robert Mallet-Stevens
folding chairs; 1stdibs.com.
7. Hermès beach throw,
$540; hermes.com.
8. Bottega Veneta bag;
(800) 845-6790.
9. Prism sunglasses,
$408; prismlondon.com.
10. Sanborn Canoe Co.
paddles, $180 each;
domesticdomestic.com.
11. Zeus+Dione swimsuit,
$179; zeusndione.com.
12. Crate & Barrel
picnic cooler, $70;
crateandbarrel.com.
13. AGL sandal, $397; agl.com.

11 12

10 13

CHECK OUT VOGUE.COM FOR
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LOVE AND GRIEF again,” Andy said, tearing up and they pleased. Grandma’s meal of
laughing at once. Weeks later we choice was a large piece of cow liver
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 126 found out that the twins were boys. topped with raw bean sprouts, while
Papa’s was grape-juice concentrate
and stung my throat. But I left it alone. For a long time, Andy vowed that from the can. Besides my aunt’s col-
It’s still his password. he would never remarry, certainly lege roommate, Carol, who’d come
never have children—the vulnerabil- for a visit 20 years ago and never
After our wedding, I moved to Ge- ity that kind of attachment brings left, there were always other people
neva to live with Andy. Throughout terrified him. Today, he wonders at around—my two uncles who still
our apartment, framed photos of the contradictions in a world that lived and worked on the property and
Laurence, Evan, and Baptiste mingle can include both an earthquake and their girlfriends or children, the vari-
with others of us. Their names come the improbable conception of twin ous inhabitants of the tenant houses,
up in regular conversation. His past boys. Andy says he has reconciled his the young men helping to construct
is always there, but it doesn’t get in the powerlessness, his lack of control, not the fish pond or rice paddy, family
way of our future. only over history and calamity, but friends like the art appraiser up from
also over loving again. Boston or the tiny Austrian spy. The
We were cautious leading up to the table was piled high with food; when
five-year anniversary of the earth- Andy’s family has said that there the door was left open, the chickens
quake. Andy still hadn’t done any- was a time they didn’t know whether wandered in.
thing with his family’s ashes, wanting the old Andy would ever reappear.
to include Laurence’s parents and But these days he’ll stop himself when (In 2001, when the family could no
sister in any decision he ultimately we’re on a walk, or while we’re feed- longer aford to keep it, Cherry Hill
made, but he felt an obligation and a ing the boys on the couch, surprised was sold to a wealthy young banker,
desire to commemorate the day. And by joy—by the happiness he thought who uses it as his summer residence
so together we took the three big urns he’d never experience again. “I think today. Needless to say, it has been
down from the shelf, scooped out a about how much I lost,” he said to me substantially cleared out and re-
handful of ashes from each, placed recently, with something close to awe modeled. I have yet to see it in this
them into separate containers, and in his voice. “But I also think about state—though the new owner is ame-
carried them to the Arve River. The how much I have.” nable to giving tours for our family
mundanity of the act—we used small members—yet what it’s lost in ec-
plastic Ikea bins, which I later washed HOUSE OF MIRTH centricity it has apparently retained
in the dishwasher next to our dirty in allure. My nine-year-old nephew
plates and forks—was surpassed by CONTINUED FROM PAGE 134 recently returned from one of these
its quiet signiicance. Andy took the tours, bug-eyed, and constructed a
containers out of his pocket one by watercolors, Whistler paintings, Vic- Minecraft version of what he called
one, emptied them slowly, and we torian lamps and Oriental screens, “the mansion,” which he eagerly
watched the river take the ashes away. little velvet boxes stufed with human walked me through.)
hair. I spent hours up there picking
Two days earlier we had found out through clothes—wool skirts, velvet- Little by little, my shakiness dwin-
that I was pregnant. As the ashes and-brocade dresses, hunting jackets, dled. The house ofered much, yet it
mingled with the water, turning the ball gowns—and sneaking down to my also requested things. Like Sally, I
stones underneath a foggy gray, we room to try them on. took it upon myself to clean up the
knew that the future held life. kitchen nightly; I weeded the clay ten-
At the beginning, I dreaded nis court. I recovered my former ath-
I used to feel that my friends with meals—but when I realized that no letic prowess by learning to ride my
children could identify with Andy’s one seemed to think it strange that uncle Nick’s unicycle back and forth
loss in a way I couldn’t. I never knew I wasn’t speaking, or that I was down the hallway from the kitchen to
what it was like to have children, to clutching my chair so I wouldn’t fall, the library.
love something that much and then to I gradually began to look forward
imagine it taken from me. Now that to them. Except for formal dinners, Gradually I even began to talk,
I was pregnant, already beginning to we ate in the kitchen. The walls were little by little, to Grandma in the
feel my own protective instincts, I’d painted eggshell blue, the ceiling kitchen. Having relaunched my ap-
find myself staring at him, my hus- covered with silver wrapping paper. prenticeship, I was reading The Por-
band, amazed all over again by what Grandma, who wore her dark hair trait of a Lady, and she told me about
he has lived through. in a bob—in her youth, she had been reading Henry James aloud to her
known as a beauty—sat at one end 100-year-old mother and how, when
About a week after we found out I of the table and Papa, my grandfa- they got to his late style, “the sentenc-
was pregnant, Andy held my hand at ther, at the other. Each of them wore a es so impossibly complicated,” she
our irst checkup. As the Swiss doc- daily uniform, Papa black pants and feared that her mother would believe
tor examined me, he paused. “Oh,” a white button-down shirt, Grandma that she had inally and deinitively
he said. I flinched—was something a denim skirt and a lavender or blue lost her mind.
wrong? blouse that functioned as her garden
clothes. While something delicious She recounted scenes from her
“Twins,” he said. “You are having had always been prepared—roast childhood abroad—her father was
two.” lamb with mint sauce and wild rice, a a well-respected artist who traveled
slab of salmon, cornmeal pancakes— Europe collecting works for Boston’s
We stared at the black-and-white everyone was also free to eat what
screen in front of us, at the two little
blobs with barely recognizable heads.
“I’m going to have two children

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

Museum of Fine Arts—and her are from the nineties,” she says, citing filled with sprints, squatting, and
honeymoon out West with Papa; she fellow glamazons Naomi Campbell single-leg jumps, have a cultlike fol-
talked of her gardening plans, her and Cindy Crawford, as well as Mary lowing among Bay Area ballet danc-
home-improvement projects (“I’ve J. Blige, Lil’ Kim, Gwen Stefani, Jean ers and boxers. “Balance is ground
decided that my closet needs to be Paul Gaultier, and John Galliano. zero for all movement,” adds Randy
cleared out every 45 years, and that’s “Everybody was just so fearless.” Humola, manager of Gotham Gym
now”). We made pilgrimages outside The room grows loud, and Rihanna in New York.
to see the things she’d planted—the shushes a group that happens to in-
katsura at the wood’s edge, the pink clude Campbell. (Who else can shush Researchers from Johns Hopkins
dogwood out by the curve in the drive Naomi Campbell?) University School of Medicine re-
that “seemed to have died in despair” ported several years ago that nearly
because of the drought (“They have Puma has already seen its fourth- 20 percent of people in their 40s can’t
shallow roots,” Grandma said) but quarter sales rise from Rihanna’s stand completely still on a lat foam
that, thanks to bucket after bucket involvement with the brand, which surface with their eyes closed for 30
of water, was now reviving. One eve- bodes well for her other collabora- seconds—a classic test of balance.
ning, in the latter part of my stay, tions, including one with Christian Much of the blame lies in our ainity
Grandma took me to see Shakespeare Dior on a line of sunglasses this for the chair, seat of a multitude of
& Company’s outdoor performance spring. Last year, Rihanna also be- modern woes. “When you’re sitting,
of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the came the first black face of Dior, a you’re not engaging your core, and
Mount. We sat on the grass, a picnic distinction that was initially lost on those muscles, along with the ones
between us, and watched as the band her, so caught up was she with “the in your ankles and lower legs, are
of fairies came creeping toward us Dior aspect.” “I was already proud what keep you upright and stable,”
through the trees. to be a Dior woman, but to be a says Helen Bronte-Stewart, M.D., a
black Dior woman and the first: It neurologist and former dancer, who
Several months passed. I could did something else for me.” directs the Stanford Human Motor
easily have lingered, as had so many Control and Balance Laboratory at
others, but it felt like the right time to In her quest for world domination, the School of Medicine.
be going on my way. But not before Rihanna will no doubt keep upending
hearing, as I came down the stairs, outdated norms. It’s not a coincidence Balance begins deteriorating in
Grandma sitting at her writing desk that so many of her Puma designs are your 30s, even among many fitness
murmuring something into the phone unisex. “I always wanted to do what devotees; for instance, running—my
to my mother. (The two had been in my brothers were doing,” she says. “I daily cardio—does little to bolster
close touch over the course of my stay.) always wanted to play the games they the muscles that confer steadiness.
played and play rough and wear pants As your balance declines, so, too, do
“She seems all right to me,” she and go outside.” She still wants to. your inesse, grace, and coordination.
said. It was just what I needed as a “Women feel empowered when they Research shows that balance train-
benediction. can do the things that are supposed to ing can prevent injuries, especially
be only for men, you know?” she says. among those who, like me, grapple
WORKING IT “It breaks boundaries, it’s liberating, with recurring ankle-ligament prob-
and it’s empowering when you feel lems. It also tones muscles (espe-
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 234 like, Well, I can do that, too.” cially the core), keeps us agile, and
improves posture.
the paradigm has shifted. . . . Lil Sis TIPPING THE BALANCE
kiiiiiiiilled this shit!!!!!!!” My own concerns began last fall in
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 265 Barneys’ shoe department. I spotted
Backstage, Rihanna and her a pair of suede Isabel Marant booties
team—a tight-knit group with whom you have to be precise in every move- with a sculpted four-inch heel, per-
she travels everywhere, including ment,” she says. “It requires intense fect for a spate of upcoming events
Forde, Rosales, and Ciarra Pardo, concentration and focus. I’ve learned on my calendar. But when I zipped
her creative director of ten years and to trust my balance. But I work at it.” the boots and stood, I felt unsteady—
the head of her production company, like a sixteen-year-old in her irst pair
also called Fenty—are celebrating. The pursuit of better balance is of stilettos. It’s been a while. You’ve
Rihanna leaps from a couch and one that has taken hold of the itness been living in your Marsèll oxfords,
envelops me in a warm hug. Cham- world as well, from Miami Beach I told myself. You’re just out of the
pagne is flowing. Pardo crosses the health club Anatomy at 1220’s new heels habit. I took a few careful steps,
room to embrace Rihanna. “You steel-mace weight-training classes and even then my left ankle nearly
killed it!” she says. “Didn’t they kill to the increasingly popular nimble collapsed outward, a close call that
it?” Rihanna says, delecting credit to combat sports like Muay Thai and brought to mind a series of sooner-
the models. “How do you feel?” I ask. boxing. “Workouts that have you forgotten incidents: stumbling and
“I feel like I’m loating right now,” she moving dynamically through dif- spilling Cabernet (my first glass, I
says. “I feel elated.” ferent planes will help with stabil- swear) on a friend’s new upholstery.
ity—and that’s the new frontier,” Reaching for the wall to steady my-
I ask her about her inspirations says Lisa Giannone, rehabilitation self while pulling on a pair of skinny
for the show, which include Japanese and conditioning specialist for the pants. What had happened to my bal-
street culture (“Every time I go to Ja- San Francisco Ballet and founder of ance? I CONTINUED ON PAGE 288
pan, it’s like, ‘Wow’ ”) and nineties the Garage itness studio, whose fast-
music and fashion. “All my favorite paced Hammer and Gravity classes,
artists and fashion icons and models

VOGUE.COM 287V O G U E A P R I L 2 0 1 6

was raised on gymnastics and ballet. unusually keen vestibular system, By the time I’m sitting in Bronte-
I ski, I surf. I would not be laid low by the labyrinthine arrangement in the Stewart’s office at Stanford, where
a pair of party shoes! inner ear that monitors the position I’ve come for a reassessment, I’ve
and movement of your head—and been maxing out on tree poses and
First things irst: I needed to know plays a critical role in balance. Hold- holding planks for up to two minutes
how of-kilter I really was. For that, ing oneself steady requires a complex for nearly three months. It’s been
I visited Aaron Sparks, a biomecha- coordination among the vestibular weeks since I’ve slipped, stumbled,
nist at the University of California system and two other factors: pro- or bumped into a doorway. During
San Francisco’s Human Performance prioceptors, which are the GPS-like the half-hour analysis (Stanford em-
Center, and a balance fanatic who sensors in your muscles, joints and ploys a more sophisticated system
can stand for full minutes on a stabil- tendons that send the brain up-to- than the Y balance test), I stand on
ity ball without wavering. He put me the-millisecond information about a movable metal plate that measures
through a standard physical-therapy your body’s relative position (they’re the slightest shift of my feet or sway
screening tool, the Y balance test: the reason you know your ankle is of my body, while the lab assistant
While standing on my left leg, arms at starting to roll, even though you’re puts me through a series of tests—
my side, I slid my right foot along the not looking at your feet), and vision, standing on the plate while it moves
ground as far as I could to the front, which plays a surprisingly important forward and backward and side to
side and behind me, then repeated the role, as any yogini who tries to close side, sometimes with my eyes closed,
process on the left side. Sparks pro- her eyes in tree pose knows. sometimes open. I feel stable—and I
nounced me “average, maybe slightly am. Overall I score higher than peo-
above” and sent me on my way with Balance, like most motor skills, ple with normal balance.
this advice: “Strengthen your core is about 50 percent genetic, so I can
with planks and side planks and re- partly blame my parents for my me- The next day in yoga, while twist-
place your desk chair with a stability diocre ability. “But almost every- ing into eagle pose, I totter and have
ball.” To stabilize the muscles around one can improve significantly with to put my foot down. Really? I think
my knees and ankles, he suggested practice,” says Daniel Ferris, Ph.D., with a spike of irritation. Then I re-
single-leg squats. director of the Human Neurome- member something Biles told me: “A
chanics Laboratory at the Univer- loss of balance is really a loss of focus.
Seeking reassurance (average is a sity of Michigan. “From the time you When you’re doing something that
tough adjective to swallow), I called start losing your balance,” he says, requires lots of balance, you have to
Daniel Merfeld, Ph.D., professor of “you have up to one second to catch concentrate. I can be clumsy outside
otology at Harvard Medical School yourself.” He knows this because he the gym, too.”
and director of the Jenks Vestibular has covered study subjects’ scalps
Physiology Laboratory, and asked with electrodes and had them walk MOMENT OF THE MONTH
him to elucidate the challenge of on balance beams mounted to tread-
balance. “It’s like setting the tip of mills to see what happens when we CONTINUED FROM PAGE 272
a broom handle on the palm of your begin to fall. Healthy young adults,
open hand and trying to keep it up- he learned, typically react in about “He pushed us to a place where
right,” he said. The human body, he 400 milliseconds; older people may we wouldn’t have had the conidence
explained, is actually like six of those take an additional 150 milliseconds to go on our own,” Reynolds said.
unstable witch’s brooms (our weighty more—a micro-lag that can mean Tisci also pushed them to a place
heads balance on slender necks, our the difference between getting on where gender lines were blurry,
hips and thighs teeter atop narrow with your day and winding up in the where male and female pieces are
knees, et cetera)—all stacked on a ER. In other words, balance isn’t just interchangeable—something you
single pair of feet. Small wonder ex- about strength; I need to be quick, see a lot of when sportswear is on
perts drive home the importance of too. The most effective way to keep the street. “The walls between him
a strong core. one’s reaction time sharp, says Ferris: and her were less important,” said
Do activities that throw the body of Reynolds.
So how does Biles work on hers? “I balance, and force it to recover, over
do 30 minutes of abs every day,” she and over again. The designer Jun Takahashi runs
says. Her favorite technique: rolling close to 20 miles a week dressed, he
across the floor from back to front Thus, the BOSU ball, the precari- says, “head to toe” in the pieces he’s
and front to back with her arms and ous perch on which I now strength been collaborating on with NikeLab
legs off the ground at all times. “It train. I began by standing on it with since 2010, a highly technical and
strengthens your back muscles, and two feet for a few minutes at a time, sharply cut layered collection called
people often neglect that part of their then the next day added arm exer- Gyakusou (translation: “running in
core,” says her longtime coach, Ai- cises. After several weeks, I have reverse”). “We usually start by say-
mee Boorman. “Simone trains hard, upped the ante by doing upper-body ing, ‘OK, Jun, what’s been happen-
but she also has uncanny air aware- strength training on one foot—far ing with your running?’ ” explained
ness. She can judge where she is in re- more diicult. I bolster all the work Reynolds. If you replaced the terms
lation to the ground, even when she’s I’m doing by sprinkling balance chal- art and beauty in the definition of
upside down. Some things you just lenges throughout my day—standing couture with design that gorgeously
can’t teach.” on one leg and closing my eyes while I frames and assists the performance
brush my teeth, for instance. of the body, then Gyakusou would
Biles, according to Harvard’s be couture. Takahashi’s own ready-
Merfeld, has been blessed with an to-wear collection, Undercover,

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

has always included functional ele- from Victorian-looking dresses to a number of them became social hubs
ments, raising the question, What is male look when she deconstructed
the difference between sportswear the jacket,” he said. “What I’m doing for the counterculture: You went to
and ready-to-wear out in the ield? “I today, she did already in her time. I
think we’re seeing very little differ- think she would be like, ‘Go, Riccar- Ben Frank’s on the Sunset Strip or
ence between the two on the streets,” do, go!’ I think she would be a sup-
he says. porter.” to Ships in Westwood or to Canter’s

When I finally caught up with EASY DOES IT in the Fairfax District, a Jewish deli
Kim Jones, the Vuitton men’s style
director, he had just taken a plane CONTINUED FROM PAGE 268 that Frank Zappa once called “the
to a plane to another plane, each
one smaller, until it let him out in a behind the facade of ine dining.” Lett Top Freako Watering Hole and Social
southern coastal forest in Vietnam, is 37, but he seems ten years younger:
track-suited and trainered-up. (The Bearded, with a tangle of sun-streaked HQ.” Ben Frank’s was sold, and Ships
NikeLab team had pegged him years hair pulled back in a ponytail, he has
before as a sneakerhead.) “He knows the calm manner and messy charm was razed, but the freakos still go to
tech, and he’s been part of street cul- of a professional skateboarder or a
ture forever, so he spoke the language successful designer or the handsome Canter’s to feed their appetites with a
of Nike culture,” said Reynolds. For barista behind the counter. Still, he’s
his collaborations, Jones was shown as driven and focused as the chef of a burger and fries for breakfast.
the Windrunner, a 1978 Nike piece ine-dining restaurant. His food is café
that quickly crossed over from mar- fare treated with a near-religious rever- Trois Familia, the latest venture
athoning to New York City break- ence and served on a battered pewter
dancers in the eighties. Jones was plate you can take over to one of the from Ludo Lefebvre (of Trois Mec)
also shown technical data—along lea-market tables on the back patio.
the lines of charts by Nike’s research and Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook
lab that indicated where a runner is Gjusta’s croque madame is on the
hot, where not. “It’s no use to outcool breakfast menu, which is something (of Animal), has taken that idea and
them,” Reynolds said. “You have to of a feint, given that the breakfast
outnerd them.” menu is offered all day long. This turned it into a founding principle.
is the other thing happening in Los
Jones approached athlete perfor- Angeles: The categories that most There’s only one menu all day long
mance from the vantage of travel—a Americans use to sort out which
silver in South America one day, a dish goes where—breakfast, lunch, (right now, Trois Familia closes at
gold in Europe the next—something dinner—are disappearing. Restau-
he knows in his bones as the son of a rants that were once in the business of 3:00 p. ., although you can book
globe-traveling geologist. In the end, delaying gratiication will now fulill
Jones collaborated on jackets that your desires right away. If you want the restaurant for a private party
are, among other things, nearly seam- steak for breakfast, you can go, at
less engineering marvels of packing eight o’clock in the morning, to the at night), and it’s a counterintuitive
performance, perfect to work out counter at Eggslut in the revitalized
in, perfect to pack, perfect to run 99-year-old Grand Central Market mash-up of Mexican food and clas-
in—and vaguely secret agent–like. in Downtown, and order a seared
“It really gets down to almost zero wagyu–and–egg sandwich with chi- sic French cooking that sounds like
when you fold it in your bag,” he says. michurri; you can also get a bacon,
(When we spoke he was headed out egg, and cheese sandwich for a late a stoner’s wish list but can be daz-
to see his irst extremely endangered lunch. You can get char siu pork roti
black-shanked douc langur in the with wilted bok choy for breakfast at zling on the plate. Buckwheat crepe
Ninh Thuan province. “There’s only the Paramount Cofee Project in the
about 600 of them left in Vietnam, and Fairfax District, or cashew-nut yo- with chorizo and avocado crema;
they are called the painted monkey— gurt with fresh fruit and house-made
and they are the most beautiful mon- granola for dinner. It’s as if brunch tres leches cake that looks like a sad
key in the world,” said Jones.) took over the entire day, and dishes
once seen only at nine at night are supermarket confection you eat in
All the designers sounded ready now free to show up at nine in the
to burst out of the gates to fashion morning or four in the afternoon or spite of yourself but that’s actually as
new sport—and vice versa. Tisci, for whenever the creative class that gives
one, thinks his fashion idols would Los Angeles its edge feels like it’s time elegant and light as a baba au rhum.
approve. Though he never met to eat.
Coco Chanel, he inds her a simpa- Ever since Trois Familia opened in a
tico spirit when it comes to break- This approach to dining isn’t en-
ing down the differences between tirely new. As in many other cities, dumpy strip mall in Silver Lake last
events and categories. “She was one a number of all-night L.A. diners
of the first people to bring women opened in the irst half of the twenti- October, the wait to get a seat at one
eth century. In the 1960s and 1970s, a
of the glossy white picnic tables inside

has been measured in hours.

It’s time well spent if you order the

duck confit, which is as traditional

as you will find, served in a shallow

bowl with mint and cilantro and leche

de tigre (the citric marinade you use

for ceviche)—a weird and wonder-

ful companion. Every bite is a play

between the rich, meaty duck and the

sharp, sweet, ginger-tinged broth. Or

if you get the beet tartare tostada,

which is a play on one of the great

dishes at l’Arpège, the gastronomic

temple in Paris where Lefebvre once

worked. “The beets are cooked in salt,

and then it’s a classic mayonnaise with

olive oil, egg yolk, and a touch of mus-

tard, then some dried chile and lime,”

Lefebvre said, explaining why a dish

that doesn’t look like much—a salad

piled on a crisp tortilla—has such

depth and complexity. Essentially,

it’s haute cuisine with the windows

open and the top down and the stereo

turned way up. “Really this is French

food and technique with ingredients

and lavors from Mexico,” Lefebvre

said. CONTINUED ON PAGE 290

VOGUE.COM 289V O G U E A P R I L 2 0 1 6

“I’m not going to make the perfect about Los Angeles, such as produce “Besides, it’s easy to park. I go, I
mole—I’m not going to compete with so consistent and excellent that it’s have my parking place, and I have
the Mexican restaurants. But I can almost unfair, but also what is vul- my cleaner and I get my chef’s jacket;
take the duck and make it more color- gar, such as the strip mall, a cheap I have my doughnut store. For me it’s
ful, more California.” and unimaginative building type fantastic. For me it’s L.A.”
that ages poorly and that, like it or
Lefebvre could have been talking not, is one of the deining examples The current moment in Los An-
about himself. Tanned, handsome, of local vernacular architecture. “I geles food can be traced back to
tattooed, the 44-year-old is a TV per- love a strip mall,” said Lefebvre. “A October 2012, when Jessica Koslow
sonality, one of the stars of ABC’s re- restaurant is a business. I really want opened Sqirl on an unfashionable
cent cooking competition The Taste. to be accessible to people, and a strip stretch of North Virgil Avenue in
He followed a traditional path at irst mall can have the best location and East Hollywood. Other like-minded
and started cooking at fourteen in his not be too expensive.” In fact, all restaurants were already scattered
native Burgundy before earning posi- three of his restaurants are in strip around the city, but it was as if the
tions in the Michelin-starred kitchens malls, including the bistro Petit Trois, kombucha-fueled conversations the
of Pierre Gagnaire and Alain Passard. where the omelet is so delicate and cooks and tastemakers were holding
In a sense he is a part of the tradition of custard-like that it only just holds at the time—that you should build a
cultured Europeans who set up shop in together (the French term is baveuse, menu around what you want to eat
Southern California—Thomas Mann which means “drooling”—the eggs instead of hewing to convention—
had a house in Paciic Palisades; Igor should be moist but irm, on the cusp solidified into an ideology when
Stravinsky lived in the Hollywood of wet). “You have strip malls every- Koslow posted her first breakfast
Hills—and found the messy, sun- where, and all the amazing Japanese menu, which had only a few items.
streaked sprawl to be liberating. restaurants with the best chefs are in One was toasted brioche with a fried
the strip malls,” Lefebvre continued. egg, tomatillo puree, and hot sauce;
You ind that freedom only if you another was brown rice porridge with
embrace not only what is alluring

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price upon request; Saint Mor.Left: Portrait of an McCartney, NYC, (212) $3,000; doublerobotics WORKING IT
Laurent, NYC, (212) Apostle,1618,Anton van 255-1556. 218–219: .com. 226: WowWee 230–231: Dress,
980-2970. Contributors Dyck.Background: Saint Watch, $6,550; Cartier CHiP robot dog ($199) $10,000; select Ralph
120: On Fanning:Top Sebastian, 1618,Peter Paul boutiques. On Abraham: and MiPosaur robot Lauren stores. Single-row
($300) and pants ($325); Rubens.170: Crocodile- Shirt, $45; vineyardvines dinosaur ($99). Robot diamond ear cuf ($1,025)
needsupply.com. Flash skin bag,$11,600. .com. Shorts, $145; dog at chipk9.com. Robot and double-row diamond
136: Dress,$8,500; 174: Loewe Marquetry Bonpoint, NYC, (212) dinosaur at wowwee ear cuf ($2,050); anitako
gucci.com.Alexis Bittar wardrobe and chair 879-0900. On Ava: Dress, .com. 227: Ring, $550; .com. 232: Dress, price
ring,$275;Alexis Bittar (priced upon request), $245; oscardelarenta sophiebuhai.com. On upon request; givenchy
boutiques.View 166: and notebook ($323); .com. On Coster-Waldau: Coster-Waldau: Jeans, .com. 235: Bralette, price
Charlotte Chesnais ring, Loewe, Miami. Beauty T-shirt, $80; Barneys New $210; rag-bone.com. upon request; marchesa
$570; Dover Street Market 194: Dress,$3,695; Calvin York, NYC. 220: On Ava: J.Crew belt, $68; jcrew .com. In this story,
NewYork.Maison Margiela Klein Collection,NYC.Pearl Jumper ($32),shirt ($22), .com. Sky planters, manicure, Maria Salandra.
Line 12 FineJewellery earrings,$375; tifany socks ($13 for three), and $59 each; boskke.com.
Collection 18K-gold two- .com.Repossi 18K-gold shoes ($39); landsend Samsung Family Hub WELCOME TO THE
inger ring ($1,300) and ring,$3,500; Barneys .com. On Coster-Waldau: refrigerator; samsung JUNGLE
18K–white gold two-inger New York, NYC. Manicure, Swim trunks, $130: .com. 228–229: 236–237: Dress,
ring ($1,400); Maison Jin Soon Choi forJINsoon. solidandstriped Choker, $2,045; $19,000; select Gucci
Margiela boutiques. PATA 209: OnWhishaw: .com. 221: Ring, $2,200; jenniferisherjewelry.com. boutiques. Marc Jacobs
Isabel Marant sandals, Coat,$3,300; select Gucci Bulgari boutiques. Bag, $15,500; Hermès shoes, $7,100; select
$585; Isabel Marant,San boutiques.Ami sweater, Sandals, $795; Fendi, boutiques. Shoes, $995; Marc Jacobs stores.238:
Francisco. 168: On van der $270; mrporter NYC, (212) 897-2244. Stella McCartney, NYC, Post earrings, price upon
Kemp: Sweater and pants .com.Raf Simons pants, 222–223: Earrings, $475; (212) 255-1556. On request; givenchy.com.
$542; rafsimons.com.On annelisemichelson.com. Abraham: Shirt ($22) and Drop earring ($225) and
Glass Water Bottle with pants ($32); landsend glass-crystal dress clip
Fruit Iceball Maker, $26; .com. Umi shoes, $70; ($295); Lulu Frost, NYC.

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

sorrel pesto, preserved lemon, blis- ice skater—her mother, a derma- she knew she had to have a pancake,
tered tomatoes, and a poached egg. tologist, was determined to keep her she decided to make it out of buck-
out of the sun. She still has her fair wheat and cactus flour and bake it
The menu sent a message. If you skin. Now she’s either on the line and in a cast-iron skillet so that it would
wanted eggs Benedict or French running her kitchen or making the be grainy, tart, and lufy. (It’s also
toast, you were free to go to any of jams that irst gave her a reputation gluten-free, which is always appreci-
the hundreds of establishments that at Sqirl Away, the take-out spot she’s ated in Los Angeles.)
would take your money. But if you planning to open next door.
were craving something savory and It is exhausting to work this hard.
illing and a little weird, you now had Sqirl doesn’t have customers as Gjusta, Trois Familia, and Sqirl
a home with the gastronomic freakos. much as a clientele, a devoted group could get by with half as many dishes,
that wants to be challenged. They made with ingredients half as com-
Since then the menu has grown— go back for their favorites, but they plicated. These and other establish-
to 50 or so items, including the baked also go back to see what’s new. Fried ments are bursting with ideas that the
goods—as have the crowds, which egg with creamed spinach and on- chefs and line cooks around the world
mob the restaurant every morning ion jam; whiteish and crispy trout are aching to develop, reine, and get
during the week. “It’s so satisfying to skin with crème fraîche and pureed on the menu. Restaurants are busi-
know that I’m not screaming into the acorn squash on toast: The dishes nesses and need to make money, but
wind,” Koslow told me. “I opened are so strange that they come close the new breed of Los Angeles restau-
a place that’s misspelled, that’s a to satire, but the lavors are so engag- rant seems to be driven by a creative
hole in the wall in the middle of Vir- ing that they make other breakfasts impulse so strong that it comes close
gil Avenue, and that has a kind of seem as original as a box of Eggos. to being an art project.
food that’s definable and undefin- “I’m not afraid of change and think-
able, that’s familiar and unfamiliar.” ing that there’s something better,” “Do I have the energy to pull this
Koslow grew up in Long Beach, Cali- Koslow said, explaining that when of?” Koslow asked rhetorically. “The
fornia, where she was a competitive answer is, right now I do.”

A WORD ABOUT DISCOUNTERS WHILE VOGUE THOROUGHLY RESEARCHES THE COMPANIES MENTIONED IN ITS PAGES, WE CANNOT Hand-shaped brooch, request.248–249: Dress, TIPPING THE BALANCE at Givenchy, NYC. agl.com. 279: Sneakers,
GUARANTEE THE AUTHENTICITY OF MERCHANDISE SOLD BY DISCOUNTERS. AS IS ALWAYS THE CASE IN PURCHASING AN ITEM FROM price upon request. 264–265: Leotard; Shoes at givenchy.com. $1,325; Roger Vivier,
ANYWHERE OTHER THAN THE AUTHORIZED STORE, THE BUYER TAKES A RISK AND SHOULD USE CAUTION WHEN DOING SO. $410; Sonia Rykiel,NYC. In this story,Las Pozas, similar styles at Bangles, priced upon NYC. 280: Bracelet,
Xilitla with Fundación gkelite.com. request; givenchy.com. $199; caeden.com.
Bird-shaped pin,$270; Pedro y Elena Hernández, 273: Shorts, price upon 281: Backpack charm,
A.C.; laspozasxilitla.com. MONEY FOR NOTHING request; select Louis $1,400.Watch, $9,200;
miriamhaskell.com. mx, pedroyelena.org. 266–267: On Danes: Vuitton boutiques. Bulgari boutiques.
Alligator-skin coat, Roxanne Assoulin x Baja 282: Sneakers, $295;
Gloves, $320; KICK OFF $95,000; altuzarra East bracelets, $90 each; neimanmarcus.com.
254–255: On Bowles: .com. On Krasinski: Suit, amazon.com/bajaeast. 283: Backpack, price
gaspargloves.com. Nike U.S.Women’s $3,400; Dior Homme In this story, manicure, upon request.Watch,
239: Cufs,$2,050 each; NationalTeam home stores. Brooks Brothers Alicia Torello. $875; shinola.com.
soccer jersey and shorts. shirt, $120; Brooks In this story, manicure,
select Chanel boutiques. Nike socks ($20),soccer Brothers stores.Tie, WHAT TO WEAR Megumi Yamamoto.
240–241: Belt,$1,775; shin guards ($22),and $145; paulsmith.co.uk. In WHERE
soccer cleats ($200); nike this story, manicure,Jin 274–275: On Aldridge: INDEX
select Chanel boutiques. .com.On Morgan: Nike U.S. Soon Choi for JINsoon. Bikini top, $125; Mohawk 284–285: 6. Folding
Women’s NationalTeam General Store, LA. chairs, $1,920 for set
Heels, $1,290; Tom squad training top ($55), MOMENT OF THE Watch, $299; similar of three. 8. Bag, $2,600.
Ford,NYC. 242: Cufs, shorts ($65),socks ($18), MONTH styles at Macy’s stores.
soccer shin guards ($22), 270–271: On Scott: 276: Watch, $3,900; LAST LOOK
$1,695 each;Alexander and soccer cleats ($275); Tights ($45) and Bulgari boutiques. 292: Heels; select
McQueen, NYC. 243: nike.com. 258–259: sneakers ($75); nike 277: Knit bag, price Miu Miu boutiques.
Nike top ($65),shorts .com. On Smalls: Earrings upon request. 278:
Drop earring,$410; Sonia ($55),and socks ($18); ($720) and shoes (price Watch, $875; shinola ALL PRICES
nike.com. upon request). Earrings .com. Sneakers, $325; APPROXIMATE.
Rykiel,NYC.Pearl earring

($250) and nose ring

($100); fallonjewelry.com.
244–245: Gloves,$50;
dawnamatrix.com. 246:

Dress,$16,450; select

Chanel boutiques.Gloves,

$50; dawnamatrix.com.

Shoes,$1,350; select
Miu Miu boutiques.247:

Swimsuit,price upon

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VOGUE.COM 291V O G U E A P R I L 2 0 1 6

LastLook DETAILS, SEE IN THIS ISSUE

EDITOR: VIRGINIA SMITH

Miu Miu heel,$1,290

Behold the ultimate midnight mule—entirely handcrafted and teetering in at 120 millimeters. But look closely:
It’s also a cleverly deconstructed Mary Jane bejeweled to resemble a starry, crystalline sky—and, while studded to
resemble a brogue, its romantic evocation of the boudoir style of old Hollywood mimics that of a bedroom slipper.
Though Miuccia Prada, eccentric as ever, paired the shoe with mustard stockings and a leather cape, we’d like to think

there are no rules whatsoever for this remarkable, celestial shoe. Well, perhaps one: Wear exceptionally.

PHOTOGRAPHED BY ERIC BOMAN

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