Role Models
AS THIS ISSUE WENT TO press, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. It felt, as so many have said, like the end of an era. Her reign reaches back as long as I have memories—but a recent one stands out. I remember sitting with her at designer Richard Quinn’s show in 2018. She told me she was delighted to be there, remembering how she herself had appeared in a fashion show before she became queen. She spoke with a joyousness and a humor that bounded around the room. Unforgettable for all of us there. And there was another loss in September—less monumental, of course, more personal and bittersweet. My friend and hero Roger Federer announced that he is retiring from professional tennis. This news—following so soon after Serena Williams’s farewell—was an added heartbreak, but also cause for gratitude and a celebration. For no player deserves retirement more. I remember first watching Roger play when he was a longhaired youth at the 2003 Tennis Masters Cup in Houston. There was that incredible speed, the unreal work close to the net. And there was the way he made it all look devastatingly easy. But there was also, just as important, a kindness and a grace—one might even say a dignity—in the way he carried himself on the court and off. It wasn’t long before I managed to meet Roger. He was interested in fashion and eager to talk about it. There was nothing I wanted to talk about less; I wanted to talk tennis. We never stopped conversing at cross-purposes this way, him asking me about designers and me brushing off the questions to ask about what he did on the court. But at some point we realized that—even if we never did get the information we wanted—we liked each other enormously. I helped him with some looks, and he did his valiant best to help me with my game. I have come to see how generous he is—to his wife, Mirka, and his four children above all. They are devoted to one another, and it’s a delight to see how the many Federers will often travel together, and seem to sleep all together in a single hotel room, like a touring circus on a budget. Roger recently told me that the upside of retirement, for him, was that it would give his family their turn to shine. He wanted his children to be able to go to school in one place; he wanted them to be free to grow and define their own lives. So raise a racket with me to Roger as he embarks on the next phase of an extraordinary adventure. It’s not a question of who will be the next Roger Federer: There is, and there will always ever be, just one. It is fitting to consider both of these heroic figures in an issue with such strong currents of personal confidence. Certainly the American designer Thom Browne knows exactly who he is. Nathan Heller’s perceptive profile of him (see “Strong Suit,” page 94), accompanied by images from Annie Leibovitz, coincides with Thom taking over leadership of the CFDA. I can’t imagine a better mentor for young American designers, nor a better advocate for our industry. And our cover star, Michaela Coel, has made a reputation of working only on her own terms. Vogue’s Chioma Nnadi spent time with her in Ghana (see “On a Roll,” page 80), and Malick Bodian’s images capture her in the busy streets of Accra. We’re all excited to see Coel in the next Black Panther movie. She plays Aneka, a fearsome combat instructor who is brimming, naturally enough, with self-confidence.