ELLE UK

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MOLLY HAYLOR Going on shoots with her hairstylist dad meant fashion was home for Molly from early on. Her first job was as an ELLE fashion assistant, and she’s helped dress everyone from Beyoncé to Tom Hiddleston. As ELLE accessories editor, Molly styles A Fine Vintage on p63. BEST FASHION TIP? ‘When coat sleeves are too long, use a rubber band at the elbows. The fabric naturally falls over it.’ MOST VALUABLE LIFE LESSON? ‘Stylist Lucinda Chambers showed me that kindness is never forgotten.’ STEPHANIE YEBOAH Fat-acceptance advocate Stephanie studied law at Kingston University before she became an award-winning blogger. Her debut book Fattily Ever After (out now) is a love letter to plus-size Black women. Stephanie writes about fatphobia in the fitness world on p157. WHAT SONG IS YOUR LIFE’S SOUNDTRACK? ‘Lizzo’s…

the unwavering endurance of style

WHAT ARE YOU WEARING AS YOU READ THIS? The same jumpsuit you’ve languished in since lockdown? Or maybe, just maybe, you are decked out in the finery of the season: shiny leather bovver boots, a maxi skirt redolent of Nineties Winona, and something, anything, red (scarlet is the colour of the season). “IF YOU’RE BUYING FOR A FUTURE YOU CAN’T IMAGINE, DOES IT KILL YOUR DESIRE FOR CLOTHES ALTOGETHER?” If you’re in the latter, I tip my hat to you, knowing that you purchased much of said wardrobe at the height of summer. Why fashion insists on dropping its juiciest winter wares as the world acclimatises to T-shirts and straw hats, I’ll never know. As such, I’ve always thought it takes a visionary to muster enthusiasm for a wool coat while the…

the fashion editor who roared

some fashion editors are born into a life of inherited 2.55 bags and Saint Laurent blouses. I am not one of them. I’m the child of a beach town in the southeastern US state of Virginia: the land of boardwalks, shopping malls, tie-dye, Abercrombie & Fitch flip flops and Gap jeans. A world away from London, Milan and Paris — New York, even. I didn’t develop a natural knack for styling when adolescence set in. (I wasn’t even voted best dressed at school.) Instead, I grew into my sense of style – and self – slowly, from one geographic move to another. I’ve spent the vast majority of my life in fashion as an outsider — as in, ‘The American’ and, most often, ‘The Black American’. Rather than try to acclimatise…

star rising... morfydd clark

SCARY FILMS TERRIFY MORFYDD CLARK. So it’s ironic that the actor’s breakout lead role is in toe-curling thriller Saint Maud, about a palliative care nurse whose devout Christian faith spirals into an obsession with soul-saving, whatever the cost. ‘Saint Maud makes me feel more sad than scared. Maud is the most pitiful martyr,’ says Clark from Auckland, New Zealand, where she’s filming her next project. (More on that later.) ‘The only thing that scares me is how easily a person can fall into darkness when society ignores them.’ She’s not wrong: seeing Saint Maud makes you want to be kinder. Though Maud’s actions are twisted (think nails impaled in her feet, a knife in someone else), Clark feels that the real villain is the world around us. ‘Health workers are…

go see... ceiling is believing

1. Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal, Ohio, USA Cincinnati’s train station got a $228m makeover in 2O16; it’s home to our new favourite golden arches. 2. Markthal, Rotterdam For fruit and veg that’s bigger than you, marvel at this digital mega mural covering Rotterdam’s indoor market. It’s the largest artwork in the Netherlands. 3. Twilight Epiphany, James Turrell Skyspace, Texas, USA The coolest hangout on campus, James Turrell’s work is a window to the sky. 4. Peacock Room, Castello di Sammezzano, Italy Step into a kaleidoscope of coloured tiles in one of Tuscany’s grandest castles, with a room for each day of the year. Photography, previous page: Guy Coombes. Styled by: Paris Mitchell Temple.Hair and make-up: Kath Gould. Photography, this page: Angus Young, Getty Images, Shutterstock.…

pssst... young poets society

Audre Lorde said, ‘Poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence’ – and these new books show us why. Safiya Sinclair’s Cannibal draws on colonial history, while Robin Robertson tells new Scottish folktales in Grimoire. Joanne M. Harris weaves poetry through gender-flipped mythical retellings in Orfeia, as Shane McCrae searches for purpose in Sometimes I Never Suffered. And Ibi Zoboi has teamed up with Dr Yusef Salaam, one of the Central Park Five, for Punching The Air. It’s about Salaam’s wrongful incarceration, written in verse.…