EDITOR’S LETTER
— THE BEATLES
In the month of the royal wedding, editor-in-chief Anne-Marie Curtis reflects on a modern kind of love
With wedding season now in full swing and our collective fascination with a certain royal couple reaching its peak (congrats, Meghan and Harry!), it’s fair to say there’s a general mood of love and romance in the air. In that spirit, we’ve dedicated this issue to the idea of modern love and what it looks like in 2018, from dating to taking that big leap into together-forever. No one illustrates this better than the ten dynamic British couples — a mix of old and young, hetero and fluid, married and unmarried, child-rearing and baby-free — photographed by Rebekah Campbell for our Love Portfolio, This Is Us, on page 94.
Weddings can be the most wonderful affairs: some of my happiest memories are from the nuptials of my loved ones and, of course, my own. But they can also be emotional whirlwinds. I’ve attended a wedding fresh off the back of a horrible break-up, where I’ve had to bite my lip through the entire ceremony in order to stop myself from bawling. At another, which I went to as a happily married woman, I witnessed a group of guests turn on a glamorous single woman and friend of mine for apparently dressing too sexily. Note: unless the guest turns up in a clown suit or completely nude, dress-code shaming of this sort is definitely not OK.
Navigating wedding season is not always easy, and we all have our own stories that attest to this fact. So in this month’s Conversation (page 84), we’ve created a complete guide on how to do the season the ELLE way, enlisting words of advice from a range of prominent experts and voices. So whether you’re preparing to tie the knot, be a bridesmaid or a guest, we’ve covered the full spectrum, including author Esther Perel’s realist’s guide to getting married, fashion legend Iris Apfel’s touching tips for making a relationship last, novelist Susie Boyt’s helpful insights on announcing an engagement, and a photography how-to from the couple behind Solange Knowles’ now-iconic bridal photos, Rog and Bee Walker. Their useful words will help you get through wedding season with your sense of fun and humour intact. After all, love – in its many guises – is something to be celebrated, not tolerated. Speaking of modern love, our cover star and the newly crowned queen of pop Dua Lipa, photographed by Liz Collins (page 106), talks Hannah Nathanson through today’s relationship rules and how she is coping with new-found fame (8.9m followers and counting). Lipa has developed a knack for wearing her heart on her sleeve through her deeply personal lyrics. ‘I think it’s important to go with your gut. Life is too short not to say “I love you”,’ she says.
As Lipa’s chart toppers prove, dating can be just as big a minefield as weddings. This is especially so in the age of #MeToo. So we enlisted Richard Godwin to write about the crucial role men can play in the movement, because this historical moment impacts all of us. As Godwin puts it on page 91, ‘I believe this shift in consciousness will benefit humanity.’
Speaking of the sexes, ELLE’s new fashion features editor Sara McAlpine explores fashion’s shift towards mixing and merging men’s and womenswear on page 46. What could be more modern, after all, than buying a jacket simply because you love it, rather than because it’s in the men’s or women’s department?
With that in mind, our shopping pages take you through the freshest summer trends, from raffia and fringe to (my personal favourite) tough tulle. And our fashion section will guide you through the season’s best luxury offerings, starting with Phoebe Arnold’s brilliant homage to Princess Margaret (page 116), lensed by Phil Poynter, and our ultimate swimwear edit (page 128), shot by Gilles Bensimon and styled by Felicity Kay.
And if, like me, you’ve always found a red lip challenging, ELLE’s beauty director Sophie Beresiner introduces shades for everyone, whatever your skin tone, in our shoot on page 137.
In short, this issue is a celebration of love — of those around you and, most importantly, yourself. Because, as The Beatles so famously declared, ‘All you need is love’.