Harper's Bazaar February 2026

Fashion is all about change. But a reset, the theme for this issue, is different. A reset is a chance to refocus, to get back to guiding principles, to decide if they’re still guiding you at all. Our city is in the midst of a reset; New York was electrified by the campaign of its newly installed mayor, Zohran Mamdani, and his promise of affordability. Last November also saw two new women governors elected: Abigail Spanberger in Virginia and Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey. And the spring runways showcased an unprecedented changing of the guard: more than a dozen debuts from designers at fashion’s most storied houses, including Chanel, Dior, and Gucci. It was dubbed “fashion’s great reset.” But was it? To help us make sense of what we saw…

“Everyone always asks me, ‘How are you 20 YEARS OLD, and how can you HANDLE this CAREER?’” says SOMBR. “And I just say, ‘I’m from NEW YORK. I’m READY for it.’” The pop singer and songwriter, who grew up on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, says some of his earliest memories are of listening to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Stevie Wonder. His deep appreciation for musical legends of yesteryear—combined with his Gen Z mastery of the internet (just look at his TikTok)—has earned him a loyal legion of fans all his own. His debut album, I Barely Know Her, featuring indie anthems like “Back to Friends” and “Undressed,” even netted him a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. For this issue, Sombr (born Shane Boose) curated a playlist of…

WHY DON’T YOU…LAVISH every interaction with generosity. Pile on the compliments and be stingy with complaints. Notice when people have changed their hair, and let them know it suits them. Listen intently when engaged in conversation. People will remember the way they felt being with you long after you’ve left. You’ll make dreary February feel like a sunny day in July. WHY DON’T YOU…MAKE a vision board a more glamorous affair. Plot out your grand plans in high style. Compile a list of all the things you’re supposed to be “too old,” “too serious,” and “too sophisticated” for and ensure that this is the year you get to them. Extra points if you use a 19th-century gilt Florentine frame for your board—the kind that belongs in a palazzo—instead of cork board. Because…

On morning walks for many weeks after the calamitous firestorm in Altadena, California, last January, I would happen upon stray pockets suspended in time. Homes trimmed with Christmas 2024’s forest-green wreaths, or perhaps a tipped-over jolly Santa. One vestige was most haunting: a grand front-lawn California live oak that was adorned with enormous, still-shiny ornaments catching the sun—a stopped clock. Continuing to the street’s end, however, supplied blunt context. Those structures were sole survivors. The bungalows and ranch houses that once filled the neighborhood had been reduced to fire rubble: twisted metal, shattered stucco, and an explosion of glass shards. For months, it remained that way. Two truths, side by side. The casual arbitrariness of it all, staggering. Backhoes and stake trucks cleared and carried away much of that rough…

For such a short word, doll has had an outsize impact on the English language. Its oldest and still most common meaning refers to small figurines used as toys, of course. But in the early 20th century, gangsters were using doll as shorthand for molls—the glamorous (and often armed) women in their entourages. In 1966, Jacqueline Susann published Valley of the Dolls, her baroque bestseller about fame, dependency, and the “dolls”—or pills—its heroines used to prop themselves up and bring themselves down (amphetamines, barbiturates). By the 1980s, doll had migrated to the drag balls of Harlem and the Bronx, becoming a term of affection for their most dazzling competitors. But more recently, the word doll has become an expression of sisterhood and solidarity with trans women at a moment of…

TO HOST AN EVENT at Design Miami last December, the gallerist Cristina Grajales selected a black wool jacket with a series of darts that subtly nipped the waist. The jacket was designed by Ashlynn Park, who founded her New York–based label, Ashlyn, in 2020. Grajales returns to Park’s sculptural pieces often, particularly for events, because “they make me feel like myself,” she says. Park, who has created a signature look of rounded shapes like soft peplums, ballooned pants, and curved outerwear, tasks herself with “serving great women” rather than anointing them with her vision. She worked under Yohji Yamamoto in Tokyo and later Raf Simons (at Calvin Klein) and Alexander Wang in New York and was inspired to launch her own brand to deliver the same level of craftsmanship, but…