Fashion

André Leon Talley Defined Style on His Own Terms

The pioneering editor had a vision for a more democratic fashion world—and it stretched far past the pages of Vogue.

• Tanisha C. Ford
• January 22, 2022

The Personality Test in Your Closet

The novelist Haruki Murakami’s understated love letters to his T-shirts convey how we give life to our things and vice versa.

• Charlene K. Lau
• November 16, 2021

The Real Game Changer at the Met Gala

It’s not Bennifer or AOC.

• Shirley Li
• September 14, 2021

The 1970s Fashion Designer Who Was Outlandishly Ahead of His Time

Twenty years ago, fashion lost the visionary designer—and prophet—behind P-Funk and Kiss.

• Jason Heller
• May 12, 2021

How Hustlers Captured the Excesses of Prerecession Fashion

The film’s costume designer, Mitchell Travers, talks about fur, glitter, and the characters’ changing relationships with wealth.

• Hannah Giorgis
• September 17, 2019

Isabel Toledo: Beyond the Michelle Obama Dress

The late fashion designer, best known for creating the first lady’s 2009 inauguration-ceremony look, imbued her work with a love of diversity.

• Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell
• August 28, 2019

How Pierre Cardin’s Futuristic Fashion Infiltrated Everyday Life

The space-obsessed French couturier has pushed his avant-garde designs, with tremendous success, into houses and closets around the globe.

• Charlene K. Lau
• July 28, 2019

Wimbledon’s First Fashion Scandal

One hundred years ago, a player shocked spectators with her “indecent” dress—not the last time attire has distracted from athleticism in tennis.

• Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell
• July 9, 2019

When American Suffragists Tried to ‘Wear the Pants’

Starting in the 1850s, proponents of the movement for women’s rights traded their long dresses for bloomers—and paid a heavy social price for it.

• Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell
• June 12, 2019

How Rihanna’s Fenty Line Is Challenging Luxury-Fashion Norms

The singer places her new collection squarely within a black aesthetic tradition—and in doing so, reimagines the industry’s ideal customer.

• Tanisha C. Ford
• June 7, 2019

To Understand Us, Pay Attention to the Outfits

The deeper meaning behind the red jumpsuits, the leather glove, and Lupita Nyong’o’s costumes—according to the woman who designed them

• Tanisha C. Ford
• March 27, 2019

There Was No One Like Karl Lagerfeld

Chanel’s creative director, who died at 85, winkingly played into the stereotypes of a great couturier. But he also refused to be pigeonholed.

• Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell
• February 19, 2019

How Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Plain Black Jacket Became a Controversy

The backlash against the incoming congresswoman’s “very nice” outfit is both tedious and predictable.

• Megan Garber
• November 16, 2018

How Kelly Rowland Fell in Love With Color

The singer turned style icon talks natural beauty, bold fashion, and learning to embrace her hue in a world that doesn’t affirm brown-skinned girls.

• Hannah Giorgis
• October 20, 2018

The Risky Business of Branding Black Pain

The commodification of civil-rights activism may appear revolutionary, but it can undermine the basic tenets of social movements. Colin Kaepernick's Nike campaign illustrates this conundrum perfectly.

• Saida Grundy
• September 14, 2018

The Pursuit of Blondness

Modern hair-coloring technology has allowed people to dye their hair virtually any shade. So why is one hue in particular so popular?

• J. Clara Chan
• August 19, 2018

Beyoncé’s Vogue Takeover Is a Show of Power

The pop star’s reported shaping of the September cover hints at the shifting relationship between the media and their subjects—and between creators of color and traditional gatekeepers.

• Spencer Kornhaber
• July 31, 2018

What High Heels Can Teach About Gendered ‘Truths’

A reminder that the quintessential piece of women’s footwear—a symbol of delicacy, of danger, of beauty—used to be worn by men

• Megan Garber
• June 26, 2018