EDITOR’S LETTER
Editor-in-Chief Farrah Storr on the power of starting over, and why that doesn’t have to mean erasing the past
This time last year, I was on my way to Milan Fashion Week. I had dinners to attend, shows to watch and people I hadn’t seen in months to kiss and hug. On the plane, I sat cheek by jowl with dozens of others, shared a car to the hotel with several colleagues and shook hands with the concierge on arrival. Though we didn’t know it then, those were the last days of a life we had once known. Now, the simplest, most mundane of actions feel shockingly transgressive. Will we ever air kiss again? Will we travel with the same abandon we once had? Will a stranger’s touch be a thing confined to memory? Of course, it’s easy to mourn what once was; harder to imagine a future that has yet to happen. But if there’s anything the past 12 months has given us, it’s the opportunity to start over. Starting over is different to starting again. It’s less about erasing what came before, and more about building on what once was. Which is what this issue is about. Who better to front it then, than Priyanka Chopra Jonas, who returns for her second ELLE cover. (She was on the cover of my very first issue of ELLE in 2019, when photoshoots and interviews were conducted in a very different manner.) Priyanka knows all about starting over. Despite being one of South Asia’s most famous faces, with an illustrious 20-year career in Bollywood, she started again in Hollywood just a few years ago. When I met her in her London home – after presenting a negative Covid test and conducting the interview behind a mask from the other side of the room – she explained her experience of turning up to parties in LA when no one knew – or cared – who she was, despite being one of the world’s biggest stars. What she understood, however, was that to start over you have to leave your ego behind, leave yourself open to opportunities and never rely solely on what you’ve achieved in the past. Writer Alex Jones’s experience of starting over is more complex, but no less fascinating. During the pandemic, she decided to permanently move from London to her hometown of Sheffield. The concept of starting over where it all began is something I think about a lot. I too made the pilgrimage to the capital to make it as a journalist, leaving my hometown in the north of England. I often wonder what it would be like to return to the very place you left behind, given that both people and places rarely stay the same. As ever, Alex explores this concept with both beauty and insight on p94. And, on p88, Billie Piper – who has had a phenomenal career transformation over the past two decades – writes with great candidness about her private mental health journey. Starting over in your mind, it appears, is one of the hardest things to do and I salute Billie for sharing this deeply personal story with us. Finally, if you want to start with fashion, this issue is filled with ideas on how to wear the same clothes with a new spin. (If you have any Nineties logo tees or Eighties belts, now’s the time to set them free.) This is the March issue, for those who understand that starting over is one of life’s greatest opportunities.
“Starting over isn’t about erasing what CAME BEFORE, but building on what once was”