Table of contents for Volume 2, 2026 in W Magazine

Paul Thomas Anderson and Teyana Taylor Director and Star, “Teyana” (page 140) What was the concept behind your W shoot? PTA: The idea was to spend a quiet morning catching up—the creativity came out of the social desire. I’m the biggest fake-ass fashion photographer. It’s hard. After you made a movie together, what was it like collaborating on a photo shoot? TT: Paul builds the playground, and then he lets us play in it. What’s a hobby people don’t know you have? TT: I love to cook. It gives me time to be calm. What’s your signature dish? TT: Pommes purée—I’m a mashed potato girl. Łukasz Zal, ˙ Chloé Zhao, and Jessie Buckley Photographer, Director, and Star, “Someone Will Remember Us, I Say, Even in Another Time” (page 152) Which…

After growing up in a town whose defining distinction was a zipper factory, Sharon Stone moved to New York City in the late 1970s. At 19 years old, she signed to Ford Models and lived around the corner from CBGB. “When you’re from a small town, you either have a sense of moral authority or you die,” says Stone. “You have to lean on your sense of self, not your sense of environment.” After pivoting to acting in the ’80s, Stone experienced true fame with 1990’s Total Recall. Her costar Arnold Schwarzenegger gave her a crash course in dealing with the press: “If they ask you about your personal life and your sex life, you’re allowed to ask them about their sex life.” Although she identifies as an introvert, Stone…

If there’s one clear idea to be gleaned from the spring/summer collections, it’s that women—and, by extension, their fashions—can more or less hew to one of two age-old poles: the good girl or the bad one. Or, to put it less delicately, “Madonna-Whore,” as Samantha once quipped in Sex and the City, while the foursome discussed newlywed Charlotte’s conjugal woes over brunch. “Trey sees you as his virginal wife, not his sexual plaything.” Down the runways walked iterations of both archetypes: from the prim lady who lunches in a Palm Beach pink sweater and skirt set (Fendi) to the midriff-baring party girl in a Blow Pop red puffy jacket and low-slung jeans that reveal her flossy thong (McQueen); from the 1950s-era housewife in a floral apron and demure navy sweater…

A couple years ago, as she was leaving the Coachella music festival, Teyana Taylor was stuck in traffic when her phone rang. She didn’t recognize the number and thought it might be a scammer, but, surprising herself, she picked up anyway. “I was like, ‘Who the hell is this?’” she recalled saying. “It was Paul Thomas Anderson! I didn’t know him personally, wasn’t expecting his call, had no idea why he was calling.” Anderson told Taylor about One Battle After Another, a script he had been writing, on and off, for 20 years. Taylor was asked to play Perfidia Beverly Hills, the propulsive, charismatic leader of a political revolutionary group called the French 75. “It would still have been a yes even if Paul had offered me the part of…

Hermès vest and pants; Jessie Western boots.…

As a magazine editor, I’m sometimes asked if I ever get starstruck, given all the famous people I meet on the job. To be honest, I rarely do—except when it comes to film directors. That is why working on this issue is always a thrill. I can never quite believe that some of the most celebrated directors in Hollywood are making photographic mini “movies” for us. Take Paul Thomas Anderson, whose body of work has been a huge inspiration to me. On a Sunday afternoon last September, my husband and I saw a screening of Anderson’s newest film, One Battle After Another. We were awestruck. Anderson had participated in our Directors Issue once before, around the time of his film Licorice Pizza, and from that moment on we liked to…

After 37 years as the menswear designer for Hermès, Véronique Nichanian showed her last collection in January. Grace Wales Bonner is slated to present her debut Hermès menswear collection about 365 days after Nichanian’s swan song. 275 days and 1 collection after Dario Vitale was named the creative director of Versace, the designer “departed” from the brand. In February, Pieter Mulier was named Versace’s 4th-ever creative director. Meanwhile, Donatella Versace posted 4 photos of herself with Hudson Williams, one of Heated Rivalry’s stars. The Giorgio Armani men’s fall 2026 show was the first major Armani collection not designed by Armani, who died last September at age 91. In the past year, at least 9 chief executives of major luxury fashion brands—Valentino, Gucci, Balenciaga, Moncler, Bottega Veneta, Jil Sander, Givenchy, Thom…

Every weekend in the early aughts, an elderly couple who wore matching pastel Ralph Lauren sweaters ate breakfast at the Beverly Hills Hotel’s Fountain Coffee Room. Ruth Cortez always served them. “I admired the couple because they were just so cute, and they only ate waffles and bacon,” says Cortez. She knew their first names, but not their last. (Calling people “Miss This, Miss That—that would be so robotic.”) After dozens of breakfasts together, the couple told Cortez that she simply had to meet their dear friend. A few Sundays later, that friend showed up. At the restaurant’s entrance, “Nancy Reagan was standing with the Secret Service,” recalls Cortez. “She was a little bitty lady! I was so shocked.” Cortez only learned who the cute couple was when the husband,…

French makeup artist Céline Martin was barely out of primary school in her native Nice when the supermodels (Christy! Linda! Claudia! Naomi! Kate!) stalked runways and cavorted backstage. “I remember watching them on FashionTV,” Martin says. “I was obsessed with these glamorous, powerful girls who looked so beautiful, laughing together like good friends and having so much fun—those were the dream days.” For this shoot, Martin, who has worked with the likes of Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci, and Tom Ford, wanted to evoke the “electric energy, spontaneous situations, and vibrant chaos” that played out behind the scenes at those ’90s-era shows (complete with champagne and cigarettes, bien sûr). Her main maquillage muse? Kevyn Aucoin, the late celebrity makeup guru responsible for some of the most enduring beauty looks of the…

You’re best known for your TV shows and movies—from The White Lotus to School of Rock—but you’re also an excellent reality TV show contestant. You competed with your dad on two seasons of The Amazing Race, and you were the runner-up on Survivor: David vs. Goliath, in 2018. Now you’re back for Survivor’s 50th season, which has a cast of all returning players. Why did you initially go on Survivor? I’m a Survivor nerd. A Survivor fan? I don’t think of myself as a nerd. But I like the show. I was in a period where I was tired of whatever I was doing. I was like, I should just do it and see if I can get on. How was your preparation different for this season? I was told…

Lately, the trenchcoat has been reappearing on the world’s most scrutinized sidewalks, worn by figures such as Teyana Taylor, Lila Moss, and A$AP Rocky in versions that look pointedly unremarkable: belted, clean-lined, largely free of embellishment. Simple, perhaps—but impossible to ignore. The trenchcoat did not begin its life as a style statement. In the late 19th century, Thomas Burberry developed gabardine, a tightly woven, breathable, weather-resistant fabric that represented a technical leap forward in outerwear. It was used in coats designed to endure prolonged exposure to the elements during trench combat in World War I—hence the name. The trench’s belt, epaulets, storm flaps, and cuff straps were strictly functional, with nothing added for effect. What followed, once the war ended, was less reinvention than translation. The trench made a seamless…

Between Brentwood and Beverly Hills, behind a dingy movie theater and down a series of damp alleys, sits the most exclusive members club in Los Angeles, a place where everybody is somebody. Countless famous people—writers Ray Bradbury and Truman Capote, comedic legends Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon, great beauties Farrah Fawcett and Natalie Wood—call this place home. If you can make it past the gates on a Friday night, you will see Hugh Hefner lying next to Marilyn Monroe. Oil tycoon Armand Hammer can be found with his family in their own private room. Unlike at the San Vicente Bungalows, you don’t have to know Claudia Sachs to become a member. And just a one-time payment gets you in—though it will run you six figures. The only catch is that…

Amid the dazzling scrum of stars who stormed the backstage area after Jonathan Anderson’s first haute couture collection for the house of Dior this past January in Paris, Rihanna led the charge with a resounding “Wow! Wow! Wow!” Greta Lee, Anya Taylor-Joy, and various members of the Arnault family lined up to congratulate the designer, who seemed at turns delighted and overwhelmed by the attention, as if he’d rather be outside smoking a cigarette. The Italian film director Luca Guadagnino could be found in his usual place, quietly observing the scene. “The thing about Jonathan is that he is a great lover of orchids,” Guadagnino said, watching Anderson from the sidelines. “And orchids are not necessarily flowers that show themselves too much at first sight. They can be a very…