IF ANYONE HAS BEEN ABLE
to demonstrate the power of clothing, it’s our cover star, Brit actor Jodie Turner-Smith. Her career was clicking along just fine after Pharrell Williams, during a chance meeting, suggested she give modelling a try. That move led her to acting, and roles in the Anne Boleyn miniseries and films Queen & Slim and White Noise followed. But as fashion news director Annika Lautens writes in “Sonic Bloom” (page 68), it was the daring and dazzling looks Turner-Smith served up last August at the Venice International Film Festival that grabbed global headlines. From her bedazzled black Gucci to her curvecruising denim Balmain to her sheer organza Casablanca, Turner-Smith had cemented her status as a red-carpet icon by the end of the festival. The stylists who helped her dress for the event were the Los Angeles team of Wayman + Micah, though we learned at our cover shoot in London that she has no shortage of her own opinions. The enthusiasm with which Turner-Smith rocked the most out-there looks—including a bubble-fringed Gucci headpiece—was clear from the first shutter click.
One of the biggest forces behind today’s viral red-carpet moments is a Canadian named Brooke Wall. Born in Toronto and raised in Vancouver, Wall moved to England before settling in New York, where she helped grow the career of hair legend Oribe. That was her first step toward eventually creating The Wall Group, an agency that has offices in New York, London, Los Angeles and Paris and represents some of the most influential hairstylists, makeup artists and manicurists. She speaks to Lautens about what propelled her success in “Get to Know” (page 28).
We have three new columns debuting this issue. In Ask Annika (page 34), Lautens spotlights one of the season’s must-have pieces and breaks down ways to wear it. First on her agenda is a key accessory for spring: opera gloves. In DNA (page 27), we dive into Jenia Kim’s Soviet-Korean background and how it melds with her life in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, to inspire her label, J.Kim. Stay tuned for more such explorations on how heritage impacts creativity in future issues. And our regular watch coverage will now include a look at one watch lover’s relationship with their favourite timepiece. For the first My Watch (page 32), Globe and Mail columnist Nolan Bryant details his love for two very special Cartiers, one of which belonged to his late friend, society hairdresser Robert Gage.
Of course, you’ll still find some of your (and my!) favourite columns in these pages. While I don’t have super-curly hair, I have learned so much from reading Texture Talk (page 54) since it was created by beauty director Natasha Boateng back in 2020. In this issue, she speaks to four Canadians about their locs (which, I discovered, should never be referred to as “dreads” or “dreadlocks”). And I am always fascinated by the collectors we profile—four-foot-tall platform-shoe addict Regan Vasquez included (“Lofty Living,” page 86). Her positivity is absolutely infectious—let’s hope that that’s a virus that spreads!