1.
“Model Mogul Mother,” August 30–September 12
The latest edition also featured a special “Fall Fashion” issue from the Cut, featuring Naomi Campbell on the cover, profiled by Michaela Angela Davis. Commenter fka_mc0325 wrote, “This stage in Naomi’s career and life is completely admirable. She has taken responsibility for her past bad actions and this chapter of her life [is] about what really matters, giving back, her family, mentoring younger models of color and creating vocal and creative spaces.” For the New York Post’s “Page Six,” Lauren Cox wrote that the piece affirms Campbell “knows exactly what she’s given up to be the internationally known supermodel she is today.” Commenter jsinasheville said, “What a wonderful profile, and ultimately, tribute to Ms. Campbell. Her strength is more than armor,” though commenter ladywriter felt the piece “started out with such energy … But then it veered into fan-girl territory. Unnecessarily. Next time around, a little less could be a whole lot more. Especially when writing about someone who lives and works to excess.” Paloma123 added, “Naomi is indeed a force and a talent. But the hyperbole and language in this profile is embarrassing. Her career and successes stand on their own.” On Instagram, Campbell wrote of her experience being featured on the cover: “I still count on one hand … how many shoots I have done where pretty much the entire team is [the] same color as me. After 35 years it’s finally happening. I don’t know [whether] to jump or cry tears of joy.”
2.
“The Roys Summer in Italy,” August 30–September 12
For the cover of New York’s “Fall Preview” issue, Hunter Harris spent two weeks in Italy with the cast and crew of Succession as they filmed the show’s much-anticipated third season. CGTN’s Nathan King called it a “great piece — just so rich in detail and dripping in the zeitgeist of our age.” Commenter veenessaboo wrote, “I didn’t realize how much I needed this piece. This was so enjoyable to read and so well-structured, taking us through each of the actors’ processes and their characters.” Journalist Matthew Zeitlin appreciated how Harris “really dug into how tv works both on a ‘don’t people get sweaty when they shoot outside in italy in the summer’ level and on the mechanics of how to make an indefinite-but-serialized show.” @JacobPollack6 found “lots to love in this article, but my favorite anecdote is the fact that Tom’s costumes are meant to complement Greg, not Shiv. I love these little details!” @k8bushofficial noted, “tragic & fascinating that Succession’s 3rd season won’t include covid bc ‘unfortunately, none of the world’s really wealthy people were going to be affected by the pandemic’ — while a cast member, Mark Blum, died of it last year.”
3.
“The Girlboss Is Dead. Long Live the Girlboss,” (August 30–September 12)
“Even without the girlboss archetype to point to, we haven’t stopped being ambitious, and we haven’t stopped living in a system that doesn’t serve us,” Samhita Mukhopadhyay wrote on the cultural demise of the trope. Eloho Omame wrote, “My instinct has been to recoil from SheEO, Fempreneur and such labels. But this piece made me see a different perspective … that of the women they empower. Still think these tags are infantilizing at best and toxic at worst.” The Atlantic’s Amanda Mull argued that “what this (and most defenses of girlboss feminism) totally declines to acknowledge or contend with is the central critique of the mindset: that the fulfillment of your personal corporate career ambition is actually not a righteous political goal in any way … personally identifying as someone with good politics does not reverse-engineer all of your personal desires and preferences and actions into indicators of objective, irreproachable goodness. Maybe you just like money and power regardless of their implications. Most people do!” The Memo author Minda Harts asked, “Why are we still talking about these problematic white women—let’s celebrate women who aren’t being toxic.” And Girls Who Code founder Reshma Saujani wrote, “I’m thinking about this article today as millions of moms continue to sit on the sidelines, forced to leave their jobs or downshift in their careers since the pandemic started. Like me, I bet a lot of those women at one time wore ‘girlboss’ as a badge of honor. And as misguided as the whole culture was, I know there are a lot [of] women looking back on that hustle today with a little nostalgia.”
4.
“The Red-Pilling of Kitson,” August 30–September 12
Bridget Read chronicled how Fraser Ross, whose boutique defined early-aughts L.A. style, has traded in trucker hats for conspiracy theories. Writer Laura Payton tweeted, “If you, like me, spent far too much time in the early aughts following Paris, Lindsay and what they were wearing, this is for you. Just a bizarre tale of conspiracy theories invading something completely unrelated.” Commenter diggoryvenn lamented, “Whatever he’s doing it’s working: a dude enabling the emptiest form of celebrity ‘culture’ loses control of his business through inept decision making, reinvents himself as a team maga victim, and now has a several thousand word profile written about him in a major magazine.” On Instagram, model Brooklyn Decker added, “We shouldn’t give them the time of day.”
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