Table of contents for December/January 2026 in Harper's Bazaar

ART IS OFTEN considered a form of conversation—an exchange of ideas, experiences, impulses, and actions that forges connections and allows us to arrive at a deeper kind of truth. Technology is changing that conversation. It is faster, easier, and more accessible for almost anyone to make a picture, write a novel, compose a song, take a photograph, or shoot a film today. Images appear at the speed of a prompt; music arrives algorithmically tailored to our predilections and moods; our memories are stored and sorted by our phones. As with so many aspects of life in the 21st century, friction—the messy, tough parts—has been reduced, with the aim of eliminating it altogether. But what hasn’t is the very human desire to see our thoughts and feelings reflected in the world.…

WHY DON’T YOU…MAKE a wild statement piece the focus of your home. The great art collector and aesthete Pauline Karpidas anchored the salon of her London home with a custom wall-to-wall tiger-print carpet. While the palatial square footage of Karpidas’s showpiece is something to envy, try invoking the same energy by bringing animal-print rugs, pillows, or even a throw blanket into your home with aplomb. Start with something by Beni, whose sumptuous rugs are handmade by women artisans in Morocco. WHY DON’T YOU…UPLIFT in tandem with your passion, as Pamela J. Joyner, a.k.a. the “activist collector,” has done. Joyner and her husband, Alfred J. Giuffrida, have established a magnificent collection of previously under appreciated African American artists, as well as helped raise the next generation of Black museum trustees. The lesson? Be the…

I’ve heard Amy Sherald tell this story before, but it’s so good, I’m asking her to tell it again. “I was painting, and the phone rang,” the Columbus, Georgia–born painter, who was living and working in Baltimore at the time, begins. It was 2017, and destiny was on the line: Her name was Dorothy Moss, and she was then the curator of painting and sculpture at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. “ ‘You should sit down,’ Moss said.” Sherald did as she was told. “ ‘Michelle chose you to paint her portrait.’ ” At the age of 44, Sherald, a relatively under-the-radar Black portraitist whose style is defined by grayscale skin tones and brightly colored, minimalist backgrounds, had been selected to paint the offcial portrait of…

RALPH LAUREN X TEAM USA .Ralph Lauren will once again serve as the official outfitter of Team USA when it heads to northern Italy to compete in the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter and Paralympic Winter Games this February. The American label will dress Team USA for the opening and closing ceremonies, and it has also designed a collection of off-duty “villagewear,” including red-white-and-blue sweatshirts, tracksuits, and knits, that will be available to all athletes (Olympic and non) in stores and on ralphlauren.com beginning December 4. DISCIPLINE, BY LARISSA PHAM While touring to promote her new novel, Christine is contacted by her former mentor, with whom she had an affair and who inspired her book. When he unexpectedly invites her to stay at his house in a remote area of…

HORSE PLAY Both a blush and a bronzer, Hermès Rocabar Silk Powder ($121; hermes.com)—inspired by one of the brand’s silk scarves—is almost too beautiful to use. Dipping into the intricate pan is worth it, however, as the finely milled powder dusts cheekbones with a soft veil of radiance, courtesy of a rosy-toned mother-of-pearl, and adds warmth with bronze and pink shades. LOCKED IN Think of Saie’s setting spray as a protective shield for the face, but without drying alcohols or a tacky finish. CitySet Lightweight Setting Spray ($34; saiehello.com) applies like a hydrating face mist but uses cornstarch to lock in makeup, mandarin-orange extract to defend against UV rays and pollution, and humectants that leave a dewy, fresh glow. IN GOOD HANDS The first casualties of cold weather are often…

FOR MELANIE WARD, fashion was never about fantasy or escape but a way to live freely and fully in the moment. The London-born stylist, who passed away in October, helped reshape fashion—and Harper’s Bazaar—in the 1990s and 2000s with her modernist eye and collaborations with Helmut Lang and Calvin Klein. Working alongside photographers such as Corinne Day, Nick Knight, and David Sims, as well as a rising generation of models led by a young Kate Moss, Ward was part of a wave of creative talent surging out of the U.K. This was a time when the British interpretation of “grunge” became shorthand for authenticity, rebellion, and a raw beauty. In 1995, Ward joined Bazaar as senior fashion editor under editor in chief Liz Tilberis and creative director Fabien Baron. Her…

This past July, I celebrated my fifth anniversary in my role as editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar. In the first weeks of my tenure, I wrote a letter to Meghan, Duchess of Sussex to tell her how much I admired her and to invite her to collaborate with us in the future. A couple of weeks later, she called me. I answered the phone and she said, “Samira, it’s Meghan.” It took me a few seconds to realize which Meghan. I couldn’t fathom, at first, that it was the Meghan. There was no assistant asking me to stay on the line; it was just her, calling my cell. What began with a letter and a warm conversation between two women who had stepped into roles they’d never imagined for…

TREAT yourself—and your WHOLE CREW—to one of MONCLER’s always cool PUFFERS in SLEEK BLACK, a DUSTY PASTEL, or a SHINY new shade of EMERALD or RUBY. It’s the perfect PICK-ME-UP during a winter wardrobe SLUMP. ROLEX adds some SEDUCTIVE bite to its SIGNATURE yellow-gold DATEJUST 31 with a CRIMSON OMBRÉ FACE and a DIAMOND BEZEL—an ALLURING PROPOSITION indeed…

WHAT WAS THAT? This was the collective response to whatever it was—boob flaps? Underwireless, bandless bras?—that fluttered down the runway of Prada’s Spring 2026 collection. They were front and center, paired with other difficult-to-describe, loosey-goosey garments: flimsy, drapey low-waist skirts (with … suspender straps?), fantastic mixed-material wrap skirts, slouchy tunic dresses over bubble skirts, droopy super-low V-neck sweaters, and opera gloves so scrunched, they looked like they could slip right off. Some grumbled that the unstructured garments disregarded a woman’s need for support and structure. But Mrs. Prada and Raf Simons have always understood fashion’s ability to reflect and respond to the culture around it. The lack of structure was intentional, of course. These clothes were about abandoning all of that in pursuit of something that seems increasingly hard to…

In a secret location in Mérida’s Centro neighborhood sits an unassuming old auto repair shop. Hidden behind its roll-up steel doors is a vibrant gallery dedicated to Mexican artists. Galería Secreta is the brainchild of Mario Torre, who transformed the business started by his great-grandfather in the 1940s into an art-filled destination. It is hardly the exception in the 16th-century Spanish colonial city, the capital of Mexico’s Yucatán state, where art can be found around every corner. Creative types, from the late painter James Brown to designers Laura Kirar and Angela Damman to the prodigious collectors César and Mima Reyes, have long been drawn to the area’s architectural beauty, slower pace, and rich cultural scene. The world-renowned artist Jorge Pardo has transformed several local historic properties into art installations. His…

A cluster of white tents has been set up at the La Brea Tar Pits, the active fossil-dig site and natural-history museum in Los Angeles, to receive a group of girls from a local STEM academy. One tent near the entrance is appointed with a handsome, worn-looking wooden desk with a tarp hanging behind it that’s printed with a reproduction of a nature painting. It looks like the movie version of an archaeologist’s field station. The 11- and 12-year-olds, in their purple-and-gray uniforms, are unaware of who they are about to meet. It’s a warm September day, and I can hear them murmuring outside the tent. A golf cart pulls up, the gravel crunching beneath its tires. “The Duchess of Sussex,” someone in the scrum announces. Meghan descends, dressed in…

“There’s NEVER been a more OPEN-ENDED space for CREATIVITY than HOUSE MUSIC and DANCE in general,” says PINKPANTHERESS. “It’s the most EXPRESSIVE.” The 24-year-old U.K.-born singer, songwriter, and producer’s music is built around a central tension: The sound is designed to electrify the club, but the vocals are intimate, like she’s offering confessions for a pillow fort. “I’m not the most going-out person,” she admits, “but a lot of my favorite producers are introverts as well.” Like any good introvert, PinkPantheress found her voice on the Internet, posting snippets of songs on TikTok, where she’s gone viral multiple times—including when her single “Illegal” became a meme this past summer. Right now, she’s most inspired by house, a genre that heavily influenced her new mixtape, Fancy That. For our Art issue,…

Overland’s handcrafted Kylie reversible sheepskin jacket offers both warmth and sophistication for the colder months ahead. The ultrasoft, temperature-regulating unshorn merino sheepskin provides lightweight comfort on wintry days—and nights. It’s also versatile: It can be worn with either the plush shearling or smooth leather side out, for two distinct looks from one timeless piece.…

In a private and closely guarded WhatsApp group, skincare secrets, product recommendations, and appointment slots are traded as if they were state secrets. One woman even suggests selling her appointment on StubHub to the highest bidder. “My clients get pretty possessive and protective of their slots with me,” says aesthetician Sarah Akram, who is based in Washington, D.C., but has clients nationally, including celebrities like Sienna Miller and Angela Bassett. “It’s like a Taylor Swift ticket.” New York–based aesthetician Georgia Louise, who regularly sculpts the faces of Matt Damon, Linda Evangelista, and Anne Hathaway, recalls receiving a last-minute call from a client who begged her to see a billionaire friend and her family of four. Louise politely declined. “They can afford you,” the client pleaded, to no avail. “It’s not…

A few years ago, during a moment of extraordinary political uncertainty and collective mourning, I had a conversation with an artist known largely for digital and multimedia work. They told me that they were returning to painting. When I asked why, the artist said, “I’m going home.” For many artists, painting is a practice intimately intertwined with their earliest experiences of art—one as old as art itself. It’s a physical process, an attempt to make meaning through the hand—through labor, through matter itself—that engages the body through imagination and imagination through the body. Anyone who has ever stood before a painting and felt it rearrange something inside them can attest to this. For some, painting is an escape; for others, it marks a kind of return. In an age of…