First Look
PRESENTED BY
JUST BEAD IT
COOPER WEARS BAUBLES
MADE FROM RECYCLED
GLASS BOTTLES IN A
NOD TO UPCYCLING,
SPRING’S FAVORITE WAY
TO ACCESSORIZE.
ULLA JOHNSON EARRING.
GABRIELA HEARST
DRESS. FASHION EDITOR:
JORDEN BICKHAM.
Pieces of MindPHOTOGRAPHED BY STEFAN RUIZ
NESTA COOPER WAS INTO “clean beauty” long before it
became an industry buzzword. “Those types of things have
always been in my routine,” the 26-year-old Canadian-Jamaican
actress says of plant-based products such as African black soap
and soothing castor oil, which were staples in her childhood
home on Vancouver Island. Now based in Los Angeles, Coo-
per—who got her big break in Netflix’s 2017’s teen dramedy
#RealityHigh—is still committed to a low-impact lifestyle.
“I’m constantly thinking of different ways to do better,” she
continues. The less-is-more philosophy is fitting for her role as
a “cave girl with dreads,” as she puts it, in Apple TV+’s See, a
post-apocalyptic series in which resources are scarce. Cooper alsofrequents L.A.’s secondhand shops in a nod to upcycling—one
of the major messages on the spring runways, where repurposed
textiles were knotted and twisted through hair. Here, recycled
glass beads from a collaboration between designer Ulla Johnson
and jeweler Sonia Boyajian embellish Cooper’s waist-length
braids, which helped secure her next role, alongside Salma Hayek
in the upcoming sci-fi thriller Bliss. “It’s the first time I was able
to keep my braids in,” she says of the specific request from writer
and director Mike Cahill. “You don’t see the natural style often
enough on-screen,” Cooper adds before seizing the opportunity
to advocate for proper care. “To all the girls with braids: If your
scalp gets irritated, castor oil is your savior!”—zoe ruffner