Hailey Bieber Nails the Art of Road Trip Style

Summer getaways are going to look a lot different this year. While international travel has begun easing up and some countries have re-opened their borders this month, many would-be travelers are staying put in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Boarding a flight certainly comes with its own sets of safety risks. It’s perhaps why the good old-fashioned road trip is having a renaissance right now—just ask Hailey and Justin Bieber.

This weekend, the pair embarked on a quick road trip together, traveling from Los Angeles to Utah. (In one photo, they even share a kiss under the state’s welcome sign.) Naturally, Hailey packed a suitcase of stylish and comfy looks to complement the picturesque pit stops, including a two-piece tie-dye sweats, a breezy floral dress with a squared neckline. She also brought along a yellow bikini, first styling it with a sunhat for a lazy afternoon by the pool, then later under a PJ-style suit. After all, when trunk space is limited, each piece needs to work double time. Her road trip shoe of choice was a no-brainer: a pair of Drew House slippers designed by her husband.

The World’s First Animal Crossing Fashion Show Is Here

Nintendo has sold more than 13 million copies of Animal Crossing: New Horizons since its release on March 20. The avatar-style game allows players to create their own worlds and communities—but just as important, players can also design their own outfits. This is why it’s interesting: Unlike other video games where only specific customizations can be made, Animal Crossing allows users to essentially design a garment from scratch, creating the exact hem length, flounce, or pattern on the outfit their avatar wears. Unsurprisingly, the game has quickly been adopted by the fashion community, with dozens of Instagram accounts sprouting up to showcase runway-inspired designs from Dior, Sports Banger, and Louis Vuitton, while brands like Valentino, Anna Sui, and Sandy Liang create custom garments for the game.

Reference Festival, a Berlin-based fashion organization, is taking Animal Crossing’s fashion potential one step further with a virtual fashion show of Animal Crossing avatars dressed up in current season looks inspired by Loewe, Prada, and GmbH. The show was conceived by photographer Kara Chung, who runs the Instagram account @animalcrossingfashionarchive, and stylist Marc Goehring of 032C. “We met through a mutual friend, curator Evan Garza, who had contacted the both of us for an Animal Crossing piece on Art Forum. We connected on a call right after, and thought it’d be a fun way to collaborate!” Chung and Goehring tell Vogue.

The final show takes the form of a three-minute video, and like a prestigious IRL fashion event, it’s soundtracked by Michel Gaubert. “This is the first all digital fashion show I have worked on, and I approached it the same way I would approach a physical show, which is instinctively,” Gaubert says. “The difference here is that the show is actually a video clip of an incredibly popular video game—and I aimed for a playful, free-spirited fashion moment; fun and games.” Set to music by Joon, the Animal Crossing figures hit the runway in Craig Green, Paco Rabanne, and Chanel looks while an audience of foxes, cats, and a hot pink Birdo-esque creature look on from the front row. “I hope it will reach a lot of people from every horizon, and especially people who may only have a vague idea of what a fashion show actually is like,” Gaubert continues. “It was important for me that the music remain as accessible as the game, the show had to have a fun and enchanting spirit as it is a bit of a sweet little parody—just like Animal Crossing itself is an imitation of life which connects a lot of people these days, for the same reasons.”

All-in-all, the final video is not that different from a real fashion show. Although, who’s to say what’s real nowadays? As Goehring describes it, putting together the event was quite similar to prepping a physical fashion show or shoot. “To be honest, [we prepared] very much like a normal pull in the first stage when working on a shoot: I went through my favorite collections of the season and picked the looks,” he says. Of course , as in any fashion editorial, there were a few wrinkles. Now, instead of working with PRs to determine which looks would be available for a shoot date, Goehring worked with Chung to select looks that would translate well to the aesthetic of the video game. “You have to really think about which specifics you can delete from a look and what you pixelate, so that in the end it remains this one specific look which everybody knows—and it’s recognizable!” he continues.

For Reference Festival, staging a virtual fashion show on a popular video game is an extension of the organization’s non-traditional approach to fashion events. (Last year, the group debuted a 24-hour fashion festival-turned-party.) “I believe that the future of fashion is a broad field of many aspects, and that anything virtual and engaging, and gaming in particular, are among them,” Reference Studios founder Mumi Haiati tells Vogue. “An intention of the first edition of our festival was showcasing new formats of presenting fashion, innovation at its very core—a subject that has now become more important than ever. With the second edition we will carry on doing so and push the idea even further. Gaming specifically adds an aspect of community which of course is a most significant factor in contemporary communications.”

So will specific brands follow suit and stage their own Animal Crossing runways? Can we kiss dreams of Milan Fashion Week goodbye and instead pray we can find a Nintendo Switch? Let’s not go quite that far. Goehring says replacing IRL runway shows isn’t the point. “It’s just a fun project between two fashion industry related gamers. High-five, Kara!” he cheers.

To Gaubert, the video represents a joyous escape from the physical world. “You can live your life in a game as you like while being stuck at home, and you can wear your favorite looks from Undercover, Prada, and Raf Simons as you buy turnips or plant red mum flowers in a gender-free environment.” Doesn’t sound like a little slice of paradise? Though like anything good these days it comes at a cost. The Nintendo Switch gaming console is sold out globally, making it harder to score than a Supreme box logo tee. For now, this fashion show video will have to do.

Why RuPaul’s Drag Race’s Gigi Goode Is More Than Just a Fashion Queen

When we connect over video chat from her home in California, I’m expecting to meet Samuel Geggie, the 22-year-old behind the drag persona, Gigi Goode, who is currently lighting up screens on this year’s lap around the circuit of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Not so: it’s the grande dame Goode herself, dressed to the nines in a 1950s-inspired polka-dot bandeau bikini top, a pair of white cat-eye sunglasses perched atop a Farrah Fawcett–style wig, and a beaming grin. For a queen like Goode, there’s clearly no such thing as an off day.

The explanation for her cheery presentation is the gang she’s currently in lockdown with, all of whom she’s quick to thank. “I’m very grateful to be with a group of amazing people right now—I’ve almost never been more creative than I have been in these past few weeks,” says Goode of the home she’s currently sharing with the House of Avalon, a Los Angeles–based troupe of queer creatives that counts Lizzo’s stylist, Marko Monroe, as a cofounder. “I’m in drag almost every single day, and we’re constantly sewing and creating and making work together. Despite everything that’s going on in the world, we feel it’s our responsibility to continue doing what we do best.”

All the same, Goode’s current daily routine is probably not what she envisioned when the 12th season of Drag Race first hit screens back on February 28. The global spread of COVID-19 was already posing an increasing threat to the drag community’s livelihood, as the bars and clubs it relies on to survive were slowly but surely beginning to shut down across the globe. Then, the season was plunged into controversy when a contestant’s history of sexual misconduct was exposed the day before the second episode aired, resulting in their disqualification and a frantic scramble by producers to, where possible, edit them out of the show. Finally, the news came on March 10 that RuPaul’s DragCon L.A., scheduled for May, would be canceled due to coronavirus. Not only does the franchise’s flagship convention provide a significant source of income for the drag community, both for the queens themselves and the ecosystem of small businesses that now operate around it (its organizers estimate that last year’s Los Angeles and New York events drew $8.2 million in merchandise sales combined), the annual event is where this year’s new cohort of queens make their splashy public debut. Meanwhile, what exactly will happen in place of the season finale, typically conducted as a live event in a Los Angeles theater, is still anyone’s guess.

Despite these frustrations, Goode remains cautiously upbeat. “Obviously I’ve had a dream come true that was kind of taken away, in the sense that I should be on an airplane, traveling the world and performing on as many stages as possible and meeting fans, and I’m unable to do that,” she says. “But then, you have to look at the positives. You don’t have to be traveling around the world to discover new talent. I’ve been doing livestreams, and spending my time watching other queens’ livestreams and supporting whoever I can support. I’m so thankful to have discovered some of my favorite artists through that, many of whom I’ve never seen before and now have a new platform.”

After all, it was through the internet—as it is with so many queer performers of her generation—that Goode began her journey to half a million Instagram followers, and counting. Growing up in rural Illinois, out in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, Goode spent much of her childhood watching her mother sew in the makeshift atelier set up in their family basement, crafting costumes for local youth and community theater. “I’ve been behind a sewing machine since I could hold scissors, basically,” Goode explains. “It’s so therapeutic, it’s like meditation for me. Plus, it was time that my mom and I got to spend together that was strictly ours, as I have two older brothers with zero interest in fashion and sewing, so I knew that neither of them could barge in and ruin it.”

By the age of eight or nine, Goode was making her own garments; by her mid-teens, as her body settled into the perfect shape for the 1950s and ’60s gowns her mother was making, she began trying on these vintage outfits and exploring the art of drag for the first time on her own body. “I’d style them up with my mom’s treasure trove of accessories, but it was often a little iffy,” Goode remembers. “I’d come upstairs to do a photoshoot and my mom would be like, ‘No, we’re going back downstairs. We’re going to pick a different hat for you. We’re going to pick some different gloves, because you are not doing this right.’ My mother is really my external muse, in a way.” After dropping out of her first year of college, she moved to Los Angeles to become a makeup artist. A series of bookings as a drag performer followed, and an audition for Drag Race came a year later.

It’s her mom’s throwback spirit, however, that colors the drag Goode is showcasing across her run on Drag Race—a recent “bride wore black” challenge saw her directly reference the cinched waist and A-line skirt of Christian Dior’s post-war New Look silhouette, while her interpretation of a sports-inspired challenge took her straight to ’80s plaid skirt suits, complete with a croquet bat as a cheeky nod to the cult teen classic Heathers. Given the many queens from seasons past who have successfully broken into the world of high fashion—Violet Chachki starring in a 2018 Prada campaign, for example, or Aquaria wearing John Galliano to last year’s Met gala—does Goode also have her eye on the fashion world as another rung in the ladder?

“Abso-fucking-lutely!” she says. “It’s always been a dream of mine to walk a runway, ever since I was a kid tying a blanket around my waist and stealing my mum’s heels from Target, walking back and forth down the hallway all night long.” Citing Jean Paul Gaultier and Vivienne Westwood as longtime obsessions, and the flamboyant, inclusive attitude of Christopher John Rogers as a new favorite, she also has a clear idea of where she might fit in among the group of Drag Race alumni who are now front-row regulars at Fashion Weeks around the world. “I’d like to bring a little humor and campiness. My golden rule in life is to not take things too seriously, so in that respect I’m obsessed with Jeremy Scott and Moschino, that would be my number-one dream. My introduction to Jeremy Scott was his spring 2015 Barbie collection—I can remember playing with Barbie since I was two years old. That is the dictionary definition to me of where camp meets fashion, and that is so my drag.”

While Goode’s sharp eye for fashion has seen her become the standout style star of her season, many commentators have noted that the Drag Race contestants who break through to the upper echelons of the fashion world—Chachki and Aquaria as previously mentioned, along with Miss Fame and Detox—tend to fall within a fairly narrow set of parameters, most notably white and sample size. Drag Race’s thorny relationship with race has become a growing, and important, conversation that the show itself has tended to grapple with clumsily, as queens of color leave the show lagging behind their white peers when it comes to tangible metrics such as booking fees and social media followings. It’s something Goode is keenly aware of, and doesn’t take lightly. “I know that I’m lucky to have been given what I’ve been given, and it’s something that needs to change,” she says.

On the other hand, Goode is hoping that the sense of sisterhood between this season’s queens—as well as the support system they’ve built to rebuff the racist and transphobic hate that can be slung at the cast from more toxic fringes of the fandom—can be used as a force for good. “We’re all such good friends, and I know that isn’t always the case with every season,” she says. “Our group chat is blowing up every single day. We’re all calling each other, and we have each other’s backs, which is so heartwarming and crucial during this time. Together we can all be there for each other, whether it’s to boost our morale and confidence, or offer sparks of inspiration, or even to just alleviate some of the uncertainty. I’m so grateful to have all these girls.”

Still, for better or worse, the relationship between LGBTQ+ nightlife and the global phenomenon of Drag Race is now symbiotic—and it’s currently at a crisis point. Nearly all of the queens who appear on the show have spent years, some even decades, honing their craft in these spaces, relying on notoriously low booking fees and cash tips to survive; later, queens who appeared on the show can act as headliners to draw crowds back into these clubs and spotlight emerging talents. Off the back of most seasons of Drag Race, the newest crop of queens would be doing the usual circuit of queer venues around the U.S., regularly crossing paths to host viewing parties of each episode to packed crowds. (The show isn’t nicknamed “the gay Olympics” for nothing.) As drag bars are forced to shut down, so too is a vital financial lifeline for queer performers lost—a sobering reminder that while there are plenty of talented queens ready to keep us entertained during lockdown on TV, many of their sisters are facing extreme hardship. It’s a point in our conversation that Goode takes real pause to consider her response.

“I think if you’re someone who thrives and makes a living on being creative, however hard it might be, this current time should be lighting a fire under your ass,” she says. “It’s crucial to keep the motor running. When all this started to go down, and we knew we wouldn’t be able to perform [in] the near future, I was shaking in my boots, as I’m sure every drag queen in America was. How are we going to make money? It’s tough, both emotionally and physically. But then you have to remember that if it weren’t for artists and creatives, it really would be Armageddon.


“We’re able to come onscreen and give those people who are so worried now a moment to exhale and relax, and just enjoy something a little bit stupid,” she continues. “So if you’re a drag artist, keep being a little stupid and try to have fun, even if you’re scared, because we all are—and if you’re not, you’re lying. Just put that aside and think about the people who really need your positivity at this moment.” RuPaul’s infamous criteria to become America’s next drag superstar may be “charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent.” (For those who haven’t come across it before, let’s just say it’s also an acronym.) But if there’s one specific factor that feels most important at this moment, it’s nerve—the nerve to see this current crisis through with appropriate sensitivity and sisterhood.

Goode’s impeccable style might be the maraschino cherry on top of her kitschy, kind-hearted cake, but it’s her tenacity and commitment to community that marks her out as a worthy representative for the drag world, fashion-adjacent or otherwise. While many in the game still have all the credentials to snatch the crown, the responsibility this year is the heaviest yet. With the dignity and humility required to take the crown through the next 12 months, never have the words “may the best woman win” meant quite so much.

Go Where It’s Warm: How New York’s Favorite Local Shop is Weathering the Coronavirus Outbreak

Ask any New Yorker where they go for the perfect gifts, the prettiest dresses, and the best vibes, and they’ll no doubt say Warm. Through the highs and lows of Manhattan retail, particularly in nearby Soho, the Mott Street shop has remained a bright spot, beloved for both its happy feeling and distinctive point of view. Winnie Beattie and her husband, Rob Magnotta, opened their doors in 2012 with the intention of creating a place that feels like an escape—somewhere warm, as the name suggests. On the coldest day in January, you can walk into Warm for a brief respite, and surround yourself with bright colors, wanderlust-y clothes, and one-of-a-kind home goods and art.

Warm’s independent spirit—Beattie and Magnotta own the store without backers or investors—has been key to its charm. But it also puts Warm in a difficult position amid New York’s current shutdown, with almost all stores, restaurants, theaters, schools, museums, and offices closed due to the coronavirus outbreak. A week ago, before New York had gone completely quiet, Beattie shared a photo of her and Magnotta on @thewarmstore’s Instagram page to commemorate the store’s eighth birthday: “Eight years ago we opened Warm, our little collective dream world in a store,” she wrote. “Please continue to support [love] stories like ours—small biz needs you now more than ever!” Two days later, we woke up to a different city, with more and more cases of the virus and government-mandated closures of many gathering spaces. Her next post read: “We have no choice but to take a time out and close shop for two weeks. As a small business funded only by our personal savings, this loss of revenue is devastating and potentially fatal. We hope you remember and support small businesses like ours when we reopen.”

Heart emojis and messages of support flooded the comments. It’s hard to imagine that any store, restaurant, or market isn’t suffering right now, regardless of its size. But it’s the small, independent shops that are being hit the hardest: They don’t have cushions of investor capital or massive global teams to keep the lights on without money coming in. Plus, things were already tough for retail before the virus set in. “No one was in amazing shape before this,” Beattie tells Vogue. “But we had a really great beginning of March. People were coming in to buy things for their spring break trips, and they just seemed really excited by new spring merchandise. It was helpful that the temperatures were warming up. Then on Thursday of last week, things slowed down a lot, and by Friday, [they] came to a screeching halt.” She continues: “It’s conflicting [to close] because the people who came in did so because they said we make them feel happy, and that we were a much-needed distraction from the news. Our customers have said we’re a store that feels like an escape from reality, even in good times, but even more so lately.”

Because Warm was conceived as that IRL, personal experience, it hasn’t had an e-commerce platform. Customers have been sending Beattie e-mails or Instagram DMs to place orders, or just to say hi, and her team is offering to consult with shoppers via e-mail or phone for home delivery. Beattie said she feels now isn’t the time to push sales too hard, but the prospect of closing the store for weeks, if not an entire month, has forced her to reconsider a website. “We always loved the idea of people having to experience things in the store—the smell, the touch, and making everything tactile,” she says. “But that sure doesn’t work in strange times like this. It has made us realize we need to have multiple channels to reach people in the future, and that while the in-store experience is romantic, there is a place for the practical as well.” (Right now, she and her team are working on putting together an edit of their favorite new arrivals to launch online, but in the meantime, you can snag her tie-dyed hoodies via Instagram. Warm’s in-house collection of printed dresses, which is a separate business, does have its own website you can shop now.)

Still, Beattie was refreshingly candid about the struggles of launching a new platform with minimal revenue coming in. She’s also had another challenge thrown into the mix: homeschooling her three sons, whose schools have all closed for the foreseeable future. “I’m not an educator, and it is legitimately challenging,” she says. “I’m trying to do that while I’m designing my spring 2021 collection [for Warm’s in-house line], and Rob is trying to put together as many jobs as he can for his photographers [editor’s note: Magnotta is also the president of a photography agency]. The homeschool really takes a lot of organization, and I’m not super tech savvy, so even all of this electronic learning and Zoom is an entire crash course for me, too.”

The biggest question mark for Beattie and Magnotta is, unsurprisingly, making rent. President Trump and Governor Cuomo have both promised to issue zero-interest loans to small businesses, and have asked the Federal Reserve to work with banks across the country to expedite the certification process. But it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution: “We aren’t people who live in debt—the Midwestern in me tries not to live beyond my means!” Beattie says. “A loan is still something that has to be repaid and personally guaranteed. We already have a mortgage [on our house] and tuitions, and there are concerns with taking on a huge debt just to stay open. I don’t know if that’s the answer.”

“I’m not giving up hope, and it is not the plan at all to close our doors,” Beattie adds. “But the realist in me thinks this isn’t going to be a two week thing, it’s going to be months and months. We have to get creative and try to figure out how we’re going to make this work. Having the in-house line saves me, because when the house is quiet, I’ve been designing our spring collection, and some new tees and hoodies that just feel happy. It’s a nice distraction. Those pieces won’t come out for a year, so hopefully by then, the world is a different place than it is at this very moment,” she continues. “And when those things are in stores, I will touch them and remember sitting on my sofa when the world was so dark and sad. I believe with all my heart that the greatest, most genuine art and creativity comes out of darker times. So in a year, what we see in stores will hopefully be optimistic and cheerful.”

Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston Had the Sweetest Reunion at the 2020 SAG Awards

Brad Pitt won a SAG Award on Sunday night for his performance in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, giving a speech so full of jokes that you might be forgiven for thinking he was auditioning for Saturday Night Live. "I'm going to add this to my Tinder profile," he quipped. "Thank you, my brothers, my sisters, this means so much—more than I can possibly fathom."

All eyes were on the actor as he concluded the speech with a wry, telling comparison between himself and his character, stuntman Cliff Booth: "Let’s be honest, it was a difficult part," he said. “The guy who gets high, takes his shirt off, and doesn’t get on with his wife. It’s a big stretch.” Notably, Pitt's ex-wife, Jennifer Aniston, was in the crowd, and the camera panned to her as Pitt made the joke. Far from seeming upset, Aniston smiled and applauded.

Then, Pitt had the opportunity to reciprocate as he watched The Morning Show star Aniston accept the SAG award for an outstanding performance by a female actor in a drama series.