ELLE May 2022

1 SNAKE CHARMER Aquazzura’s Edgardo Osorio didn’t have to travel far to find the starting point for his spring collection. The jet-setting Florence-based designer looked to the allure of the Mediterranean, creating an imaginary itinerary among the Aeolian islands. In addition to Osorio’s faux coral–embellished sandals, his costume jewelry is a standout, with showstopping snake earrings and sinuous bracelets befitting a modern-day goddess. Earring, Aquazzura, $2,700 (for pair), Aquazzura stores nationwide. 2 THE KID IS ALRIGHT Public School codesigner Maxwell Osborne is seeing green. His new sustainable label, anOnlyChild, draws upon the resourcefulness and creativity that growing up as the only child of Jamaican immigrants afforded him. Many of the garments are inspired by Osborne’s hand-me-downs and his family photos from the ’70s, while the palette channels the reddish hue of Jamaica’s dirt roads…

You’ve been binge-watching Yellowstone, summer’s just around the bend, and the time seems ripe for seeking wide-open spaces on a great American road trip (maybe in Ford’s retro-styled, all-electric F-100 Eluminator pickup). Designer Lela Rose, who currently splits her time between New York and Wyoming, was certainly feeling the draw for her most recent show. Patterns from her collection of Western tapestries informed her cozy knits, and several looks were accessorized with bolo ties and vintage concha belts. Start your own collection at Shiprock Santa Fe, founded by fifth-generation Navajo art trader Jed Foutz. In San Antonio, milliner Cheyanne Hatley (yes, that’s her real name) of Herb’s Hat Shop fashions seriously cute cowboy hats. Next stop: Guthrie, Oklahoma, where master bootmaker Lisa Sorrell takes only four to six commissions per…

As I write this, our team is carefully reviewing layouts and brainstorming upcoming fashion shoots. Meanwhile, my colleagues at ELLE Ukraine are engaged in starkly different, much less business-as-usual proceedings. Sonya Zabouga, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, recently Zoomed with ELLE.com Senior Writer Madison Feller for an interview from her home in Kyiv. As the country was being invaded, her staff continued to cover news and service topics for their domestic audience (instructing readers what to do in the event of shelling or losing internet access, for example). But they also found themselves speaking to the outside world and educating them about the situation they were facing. “Our mission…is to help the world know the truth, to know what’s really going on,” Zabouga says. I’m in awe of their courage in the…

SCROLLING THROUGH the Instagram account @starter packsofnyc feels like flipping through a pack of trading cards, except instead of stats, each archetype comes with outfits and drink orders. Resist all you want, but you’ll likely identify with one of the curated personalities on the feed. There I was in the binder, I realized: shearling-wearing, whole milk–drinking, Balthazar-dining, Lana Del Rey–listening, cozy-inclined woman. But it’s not shade. The account isn’t mocking the circles that it spoofs. The comments don’t suggest offense so much as delighted acknowledgment by fellow “teammates.” Why, in an era that places so much emphasis on unfettered self-expression, do we find such contrarian joy in looking like others? “People are happy to feel seen and be part of a cultural conversation, even if it’s not an entirely flattering one,”…

SCHIAPARELLI’S GILDED “opera gloves.” Loewe’s armorlike body sculpting. Marine Serre’s head-to-toe catsuits. The new mode of dressing takes inspiration from bracing for the apocalypse, but with a stronger, sexier MO than your typical Blade Runner fare. It’s glamorous, dripping in gold and rife with baroque patterns. Perhaps the rise of this aesthetic stems from our obsession with dystopian series like Station Eleven. Or maybe it’s the idea that we’re literally shielding ourselves in a new way, after years of collective suffering caused by the pandemic and the climate crisis. The concept also owes a debt to TikTok, where the #avant-apocalypse tag has over 500K views. Participants are deconstructing, cutting, repurposing, and upcycling pieces they already have in their wardrobes, putting an emphasis on the body with skin-revealing cutouts and curve-hugging fabrics. When…

“It’s almost like a play,” Simone Rocha says of putting together a fashion collection. “There’s a beginning, middle, and end. A narrative.” Rocha has had narratives on her mind lately—beginnings and middles, though certainly not ends. She’s looking back on slightly over 10 years of shows, an eternity for an independent fashion brand. Sitting in the lobby of a celebrity-frequented downtown New York hotel, she nurses a cup of tea, unmistakable in ruffled, voluminous all-black and chunky jewelry, and remembers the beginning. It was 2011, and the “tough girl” ruled fashion. It Bags practically came standard-issue with studs, and sludge-eyelinered models were the street-style flavor du jour. Rocha’s first solo show at London Fashion Week struck me, then a baby ELLE writer, as a breath of rose petal–scented fresh air. Some…