RADHIKA JONES, Editor in Chiefacid-floral portraits, takes on the twin powers of
worldly and otherworldly.
As I think about these women, I feel a profound
sense of gladness and relief at how varied our
representations of power and ambition are becoming.
This is the season of preliminary presidential
politics, and last time around, there was room for just
one type of woman at the top; now half a dozen
are in the mix, different from one another in outlook
and experience, representative of different regions,
races, and generations. I don’t know why it took so
long—or no, I do: structural sexism and individual
misogyny—but finally multiple women are running
for president, and that will keep happening, and
eventually one of them will win. And if you don’t think
structural sexism and individual misogyny are a
thing, I refer you to Vanessa Grigoriadis’s column on
Jeffrey Epstein, whose abuse of girls suggests not
only that he and his high-flying cohorts were perfectly
comfortable in a world that allowed them to treat
women like toys, but that they never expected to be
held accountable for it. As a society, we haven’t
solved that problem. But we seem to be getting a little
better at confronting it.It’s been just six years since Lupita Nyong’o
appeared in Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, and
five and a half years since she won an Academy
Award for her performance—her first role in a
feature film. Since then, she has established herself
as a lodestar in the firmament of contemporary
cinema. She’s worked with Ryan Coogler in Black
Panther, Jordan Peele in Us, and J.J. Abrams in
the final Star Wars trilogy, the last installment of
which comes out in December. This fall, Lupita
makes another debut, this time as an author. She
has written a children’s book, Sulwe, about a child
“born the color of midnight.” The book is close
to her heart, she tells Kimberly Drew in our cover
story; she was moved to write it after receiving a
letter from a young girl who told her she had been
about to buy a cream to lighten her skin when
Lupita “appeared on the world map and saved me.”
It isn’t just young girls who look for affirmation
in the culture. In this issue we publish our annual
best-dressed list, an absorbing avenue to inspiration
through image. We focus on style that augments
personality, that conveys a sense of play, and
I hope you will get lost as I do in the intricacies of
our honorees’ choices, the way a particular hat
or hairstyle carries meaning for them, and presents
them to the world. We are grateful for the opinions
and excellent taste of Kimberly, Lisa Eisner,
and Duro Olowu, who, along with our V. F. fashion
team led by Samira Nasr and contributing editor
Maggie Bullock, offered nominations and ideas.
A trio of women add further notes of style and
substance to this issue: Victoire de Castellane, a
glass-ceiling breaker in her role as the longtime
creative director of Dior Fine Jewelry; Mackenzie
Davis, who looks equally at home swinging from
scaffolding in couture and playing a machine fighter
in this fall’s Terminator: Dark Fate; and Lupita,
of course, who, in Jackie Nickerson’s mesmerizingWr itte n
in the
Stars
Editor’s Letter October 2019
24 VANITY FAIR OCTOBER 2019ANNIE LEIBOVITZ