Dua Lipa Goes Full Holiday Bombshell on The Tonight Show

Dua Lipa might love a good suit, like the classic Chanel set that she wore in Tokyo earlier this month. She might also sometimes reach for something a bit more unconventional, like the floral Vaquera vest and tie combination that looked as though it had been upcycled from the curtains on your grandmother’s windows.

But lately, she’s been leaning hard into bombshell style. She attended the Mnet Asian Music Awards in Nagoya, Japan, in what she described on Instagram as her “dream dress,” a sparkly pink minidress that made her look like a Barbie come to life. She soon followed it up with a diamond-like fringe showgirl set that she wore on the season finale of NBC’s The Voice. Now she’s taken it a step further with her appearance last night on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Lipa talked to Fallon about the first concert she ever attended (it was Method Man and Redman in Kosovo) and her headlining performance this past summer at the Sunny Hill Festival, which is Kosovo’s first major music festival (it was organized by her father). Even though she wasn’t performing on Fallon, Lipa appeared in a dress that was every bit as showstopping as her stage wardrobe: a perfectly fitted, peach-colored Atelier Versace dress with a built-in peekaboo bustier. While he minidress isn’t quite in line with the usual holiday color palette, Lipa somehow still managed to make the garment look festive—it was just the right amount of sparkle for the season.

St. Vincent and Matty Bovan Collaborate on a Surreal Party Dress for a New Art Installation

What does one wear to a futurism-themed pop-up champagne bar where the dance floor is lit up by melted disco balls and edible pastes and gels are served to accompany the bubbly drink? If you’re St. Vincent, aka Annie Clark, and you’re the mastermind of said pop-up art installation-cum-champagne bar, wearing something pulled from the whimsical world of British designer Matty Bovan is certainly one good answer.

This past weekend, St. Vincent served as the host of a Veuve Clicquot pop-up champagne bar, titled Souvenir, which took place at Covent Garden in London’s West End. To bring her surreal vision to life, Clark worked with plant-based experimental food project Plates London, the Rotterdam-based design collective Rotganzen (who made the wonky disco balls), and mixologist Pippa Guy. The installation ended up taking the form of a minor social experiment. Clark played different characters throughout the event, including a coat check girl, a bartender, and a waitress. “I’ll be taking people’s coats and then throwing them on the floor, or sniffing them, or putting them on, maybe feeling them,” Clark says over the phone in the hours leading up to the first night of the event as she’s getting her makeup done.

Clark says she was inspired by a very specific conception of the future, one that’s very different from 1960s, Jetsons-era nostalgia that’s come to represent a certain kitschy-futurist design aesthetic. “In the future, what are people going to be looking for when they’re coming to convene? What is it that people want when they talk to one another?” Clark asks. “They’re looking for connection, and they’re looking to lose themselves a little bit. When people are tasting things, and all their senses are alive, they’re kind of looking for memories, and that was the initial inspiration for the whole piece—to evoke connection in this sort of surreal way.”

Clark’s collaboration with Bovan was a central part of building this off-kilter, futuristic world. Bovan designed silk scarves emblazoned with the word “Souvenir” worn by everyone on the waitstaff, and he helped come up with distinct, kaleidoscopic makeup looks for each person. He also created the otherworldly garment that Clark changed into for her performance after she paid her dues as a temporary coat check girl or waitress. The colorful, structural piece makes Clark look like an alien wrapped up in a comforter. “We worked with Liberty Fabric again on scaling up a print, and the base is foam rubber wrapped in tulle and hand-sewn,” Bovan says.

The result is “incredibly strong-looking, yet feminine,” Bovan says. Clark describes it in more colorful terminology. “It’s like if Helen of Troy was a matador on acid.”

Sienna Miller Has a Message for Brexit Supporters

As Britain heads toward a general election on December 12 in an attempt to resolve years of Brexit drama, many of the country's most prominent citizens have been voicing their opinions. While stars like David Beckham, Vivienne Westwood, and Elton John have all been vocal about their desire for the nation to remain in the European Union, few have got the point across as succinctly as Sienna Miller. Currently in New York, the actress turned a street style moment into a political statement when she stepped out yesterday wearing a “EUnify” hoodie by the Berlin art initiative König Souvenir.

Founded in 2010 by Karin Oender and David Mallon, König Souvenir may be the ultimate art-meets-fashion label. Through collaborations with artists like Rinus Van de Velde and the youth collective IGNAZ, they create merch with a message connecting streetwear aesthetics with contemporary art. Designed to symbolize “critical engagement in the European project,” the EUnify sweatshirt, which features the colors of the EU flag and a broken circle of stars, was first made for a panel hosted by Berlin’s Koenig Gallerie in the lead-up to the 2017 Brexit vote. Striking and unapologetically political, the hoodie has gone viral, appearing in countless selfies and on the back of stars like Adwoa Aboah, Richie Shazam, and Juergen Teller.

Paired with leggings, Adidas Stan Smiths, and a Givenchy gym bag, Miller’s look was casual, but it proved as impactful as any of her glittering red carpet gowns. By wearing her politics on her sleeve, she sent a message that was loud and clear.

A$AP Rocky Makes the Case For Yet Another Unexpected Men’s Accessory Trend

In case you missed it, A$AP Rocky has firmly made himself known as a babushka boy. Since he first reinterpreted the matronly headscarf—most notably, perhaps, with the floral silk Gucci scarf he wore to a LACMA gala in Los Angeles last year—Rocky has continued to break out the unexpected accessory on a regular basis. Just last night, even, Rocky went to a Fenty after-party in the midst of Paris Fashion Week wearing a sleek, black patent leather Marine Serre raincoat which he paired with, yes, a red babushka-cum-baseball cap.

For Rocky’s latest appearance at the Loewe runway show earlier today, though, the rapper swapped out his go-to accessory for something a little different. With a caned bag slung low on his hip and his pants cinched at the ankles, Rocky walked into the Loewe show with an opalescent, almost Victorian looking choker firmly set around his neck. It’s a bold styling choice, especially when paired with a men’s blazer as Rocky did, but it’s certainly fetching on him. When he first debuted the babushka headscarf last year, the response was divided, but since then the look has been sported by the likes of Jaden Smith and Marc Jacobs—could Rocky be patient zero for a menswear accessory trend once again with the choker? For that, we’ll have to wait and see—but don’t be surprised if he writes a song called “Choker Boi” now, too.

Diplo Goes Far Out on the VMAs Red Carpet With a Very Trippy (Literally) Nudie Suit

Diplo has already thrown his cowboy hat into the yeehaw style ring—he’s taken [change taken to brought to avoid rep in next graph] skintight yellow Nudie suits onto the basketball court, of all places, and recently he debuted a cow-print set with a matching hat.

Now, though, in the midst of a full-out Westernwear renaissance, Diplo’s taking the Nudie suit on a far-out psychedelic trip in honor of his song “LSD,” a collaboration with British producer Labrinth and Sia. Fort Lonesome, an Austin-based chain-stitch embroidery studio, decked out Diplo’s cream-colored custom suit with a Colorado River toad (a noted psychedelic), the chemical compound symbols for psilocybin (the active component of magic mushrooms), and last but not least, the VMAs moon man holding on to some ’shrooms in space. Diplo looks like a cowboy in the midst of a life-changing acid trip (and we mean that in the best way possible).

Tracing Selena Gomez’s Beauty Evolution From Disney Star to Brunette Bombshell

While she may have begun her career alongside a plush purple dinosaur on the hit children's show Barney & Friends at just 10 years old, Selena Gomez is all grown up. Turning 27 today, the brunette beauty has evolved from fresh-faced child star to scene-stealing red carpet knockout, all while releasing a pair of hit albums (with one on the way), honing her acting chops—and working her way through a lineup of swingy, signature hair looks.

As the quirky, curly haired Alex on Disney's Wizards of Waverly Place circa 2008, Gomez showed early chameleonic tendencies with a set of bangs and the occasional poker-straight take on her raven lengths or a raked back bun for an outing with on-again, off-again flame, Justin Bieber. A plunging decolletage, artfully disheveled braid, and Bordeaux lips signaled a shift toward a more mature style in 2013, followed by sophisticated ponytails and played down—yet polished—nude makeup.

As her fashion evolved with a series of straight-off-the-runway looks in 2016, courtesy of Louis Vuitton, Coach, and Fenty, so, too, did her distinctive beauty. In 2017, the Texas-born beauty picked up the shears, trading in her elbow-grazing waves for a statement bob that was equal parts fresh and directional, and played with a memorable pop of orange eyeshadow matched to a sherbet-hued dress for an outing.

Inside the Shanghai International Film Festival With Marvel Star Chloe Bennet

The Shanghai International Film Festival is a showcase for the best in world cinema, though for Chloe Bennet the event took on a deeper meaning. As one of the stars of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Bennet is best known to American audiences as the gutsy superhero Quake, but long before her big break she was a teenager growing up in China’s biggest city. Originally Born in Chicago, Bennet moved to Shanghai at the age of 15 to pursue a career in entertainment. Bennet remembers the ups and downs of those formative years vividly. “I wanted to act, I wanted to sing, and man I ran around this city with so much excitement, confidence and hope of what I was going to do with my life and my career,” said the 27-year-old actress via email from Los Angeles. “I didn’t have my family with me, I didn’t have friends, I just had the dream of what could be.”

At the festival to represent her latest project Abominable, the DreamWorks animated drama about a young girl who reunites a yeti with its magical family, Bennet returned to the city in high spirits. The first Hollywood children’s film to have an Asian lead since Mulan in 1998, Abominable is set to break barriers when it’s released in September. Now on screen acting, singing, and giving kids a new heroine to look up to, she stepped onto the red carpet at Shanghai Grand Theatre in her glittering Vivienne Westwood gown with the heartwarming feeling that she’d come full circle. “Man, I’ve got to say, it’s been over a decade since I lived here, and every time I’m back the city makes me feel like that same little girl,” she said. “I love that feeling [and] I love this city.”

This Italian Power Couple Shut Down the Front Row at Gucci’s Cruise Show

Someone call the Pope! Did two angels just float down onto the front row at Gucci’s show in Rome? Not quite. But it does appear that the Italian-Tunisian rapper Ghali and the supermodel Mariacarla Boscono are a match made in heaven. The amorous couple, who has been pictured locking lips over the past several months, attended the brand’s Cruise 2020 presentation, drifting onto the scene dressed in ethereal all-white and holding hands. Boscono wore a thigh-grazing minidress complete with puffed pleated peasant sleeves and ruffled bib. To add an angelic finish, she sported a sparkling crown.

As for Ghali, the lanky, 25-year-old rapper known for his smooth flow and highly stylized videos (not to mention a wildly enthusiastic fan base!), looked equally divine in a semi-sheer shirt with baroque ruffled collar and an embroidered shawl. (A fan video showed Boscono adorably buttoning the her beau's shirt before they stepped out together.) Looped under his arm was a tiny white purse, and to emphasize his tall frame further still, he wore a pair of wide-leg trousers.

While both were otherworldly all on their own, the pair was clearly twinning from head to toe: naturally, both sported a version of Gucci’s famed loafers. And if that’s not love, we don’t know what is.

Jorja Smith Is Dior’s New Makeup Ambassador

Jorja Smith's star continues to rise. Both musically—her acclaimed debut album Lost & Found helped earn her a Best New Artist nomination at the 2019 Grammy Awards—and in the beauty realm, as evidenced by her latest coup: being named Dior's new global makeup ambassador.

The 21-year-old British R&B singer made the announcement this afternoon on Instagram, expressing her excitement about joining forces with the storied French fashion brand to her 2 million followers. "Little 14-year-old J would not have even thought about this while stealing my mom’s mascaras!" she wrote.

Needless to say, Smith, who pulled back the curtain on her skincare routine for Vogue's Beauty Secrets series, is an ideal canvas, with her luminous complexion and chameleonic tendencies above the neck. Last November at the annual Guggenheim International Gala party hosted by Dior, Smith seamlessly transitioned from a saturated crimson lip on the red carpet to a dusty rose gloss for her performance while wearing a striking shimmery bronze smoky eye. According to the brand, Smith will be working closely with Peter Philips, creative and image director for Dior Makeup, on upcoming editorial projects.

"Jorja represents my idea of the Dior woman because she’s young [and] is incredibly focused on her goals, and [she] isn’t afraid to let her voice be heard,” says Maria Grazia Chiuri, Dior's creative director, of Smith. With her fearless attitude and a natural-born love for high-impact makeup, expect to see lots more vivid and graphic looks from Smith as she embarks on The Kali & Jorja Tour this spring.

Cruel Intentions Is Still a Teenage Fashion Dream 20 Years On

Of all the fashionable ’90s teen movies, Cruel Intentions is arguably the chicest. Sure, Cher Horowitz had an amazing closet, but how many people can really wear yellow plaid with thigh-high stockings in real life? With its urbane perspective on youth culture, the film offered a counterpoint to the frothy Clueless fantasy at the time and returns to theaters this weekend for a 20th anniversary celebratory run. Its characters may have been worried about college applications and standardized tests, but they hid those concerns beneath layers of discreetly chic Prada.

A teen retelling of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, the story hinges on the same combination of lust and betrayal that made Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s 1782 novel so potent. While the original satirized the treachery of French aristocracy during the Ancien Régime, its ’90s counterpart tackles the insular world of Manhattan’s prep schools and Upper East Side. Step-siblings and occasional paramours Kathryn Merteuil (a brunette Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Sebastian Valmont (Ryan Phillipe at his poutiest) turn romance into a sport, hoping to entrap their fellow students and one up each other. Unscrupulous and conniving, Sebastian and Kathryn would be well suited for each other if their parents weren’t married. They both employ beauty and style as a weapon, scheming and taking bets on whether or not Sebastian can seduce the headmaster’s naive daughter Annette Hargrove.

Through all the backstabbing and bed-hopping, the characters dress impeccably. Costume designer Denise Wingate used wardrobe as a means of defining the characters down to the color palette; Reese Witherspoon’s virginal Annette and Selma Blair’s delightfully dippy freshman Cecile both sport pastel tones and preppy J.Crew cardigans to underscore their innocence. The considerably worldlier Kathryn and Sebastian were dressed in pieces straight off the runways. Their stark, mostly black outfits—is there any shade more appropriate for villainy?—showcased sex appeal and minimalist luxury. Spoiled and unapologetically materialistic—the prize that serves as a catalyst for the entire scheme is a vintage 1956 Jaguar XK140 valued at millions—their aesthetic projected wealth.

Several original pieces were created just for the film, but Wingate mixed them with selections from the era’s biggest labels for added authenticity. The combination made for a moving fashion editorial. No self-respecting 18-year-old girl would wear a wide-brimmed black hat and business suit to lunch in the park, but damn if it doesn’t look good! Several of the best outfits juxtapose Wingate originals with runway styles; the iconic bustier and tulle covered bra combo worn by Gellar was custom but the black suit she wore over it was Dolce & Gabbana. Likewise, Sebastian’s turtlenecks came courtesy of Prada but the rimless glasses were Phillipe’s personal choice.

After 20 years, some elements of the story no longer hold up—a modern reboot would likely feature the girls banding together to block Sebastian’s toxic masculinity instead of falling for his charms—but the clothes are still perfection. Every ’90s trend that currently dominates, from silk slip-dresses to tiny sunglasses, makes its way onscreen and works beautifully together. As the movie heads to the big screen all over again, its teen dream vision is sure to inspire a brand new generation.

Charlize Theron Reveals a Femme Fatale Makeover at the Oscars

After Charlize Theron shaved her head to star in Mad Max: Fury Road in 2015, it was clear that she was willing to take a beauty risk. Case in point: the actress and producer arrived to the Oscars this evening with a radically bold bob and a new brunette hair color worthy of a femme fatale.

Known for her icy blue gaze and a glow that's outlasted decades in Hollywood, Theron's latest transformation is deserving of an award on it's own. Paired with a sky blue Dior gown that showed off the South African beauty’s seriously toned upper back, Theron matched her dark lengths with a swipe of crimson matte lipstick.

"Decided to chop it all off before the big moment," hairstylist Adir Abergel said on Instagram of the new closely cropped style. The split-second decision to make a change is clearly a lesson in red carpet beauty done right.

Stephen Colbert (And Thousands of Other People) Want Cardi B to Give the State of the Union Rebuttal

Stephen Colbert’s unofficial petition to have rapper Cardi B deliver this year’s rebuttal to the State of the Union address has received thousands of likes and retweets, much more than anyone would give—literally or metaphorically—to the idea of President Donald Trump speaking to the country as around 800,000 federal employees remain furloughed or are working without pay in the partial government shutdown.

If you remember, last week Cardi released a video on Instagram laying into Trump for holding the government hostage in order to build a wall at the United States southern border in response to a manufactured immigration crisis—the real crisis is a humanitarian one in which thousands of migrants are waiting to legally seek asylum but are stuck on the Mexican side of the border or forced to cross dangerously out of desperation. “This shit is really fucking serious, bro,” she said in her video, which prompted a now-infamous tweet in response from Senator Chuck Schumer. “Our country is in a hellhole right now—all for a fucking wall.”

Since then, Cardi has been talking in detail about how the shutdown affects not just government employees but the Americans who rely on government services. “I know 800,000 federal government workers won’t be getting paid ’til the shutdown is over, and government assistance programs are shut down as well as in NO [federal] WELFARE, NO WIC, SECTION 8,” she wrote in another Instagram post.

This isn’t the first time Cardi has gotten political—she endorsed Cynthia Nixon’s gubernatorial candidacy in New York last year and supported “Daddy Bernie [Sanders]” for president in 2016. Cardi would very likely give a much better, much more truthful rebuttal to a State of the Union address, which Trump has now agreed to postpone after trading a series of aggressive letters with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. (Pelosi essentially said that Trump would not be allowed on the House floor while the government is functioning at a fraction of its full capacity, with several very important regulatory and safety organizations unable to do their work, and Trump eventually relented.)