Table of contents for August 2023 in Harper's Bazaar

I’m writing this in June, which is Pride Month. Over the weekend, my son and I took a walk through our neighborhood, which happens to be the epicenter of Brooklyn Pride, the borough’s boisterous, family-friendly celebration of LGBTQ+ culture. It felt joyous and safe and made me proud to be a part of a community where people show up for one another. This is not the case everywhere. Over the past couple of years, drag has become the focus of a widespread campaign of ultra-conservative fearmongering, with anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and bills to ban it introduced in states throughout the country. Back in March, when the Daniels—Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan—accepted their Oscars for Best Director for Everything Everywhere All at Once, Scheinert addressed the audience: “We want to dedicate this…

When DJ Kool Herc first experimented with twin turn-tables and breakbeats in the Bronx in 1973, he didn’t just initiate a new musical genre, he ignited an entire cultural movement built by—and for—people of color. The birth of hip-hop cracked open a world of opportunity for young DJs, rappers, musicians, poets, dancers, and designers who were eager to make their mark. Early on, it was a world that didn’t always make space for women. But they were always there, behind the scenes and on the mic, creating the framework for what hip-hop would sound, look, and feel like for generations to come. In 1988, at the age of 17, Lana Michele Moorer, better known as MC Lyte, became the first solo female rapper to release a full-length album, with her…

NOW THAT YOU HAVE OUR AUGUST ISSUE, GET READY TO SHOP IT. Look for the icon next to an item in HARPER’S BAZAAR: It means the item is available to buy on SHOPBAZAAR.COM—the online store brought to you by our editors. We’ve partnered with the best specialty boutiques, most coveted designers, and prestige beauty brands to present the must-have fashion and beauty edit of the season, in a shopping destination that’s open around the clock and around the world. SHOPPING AT SHOPBAZAAR.COM IS EASIER THAN EVER. SCAN THE CODE WITH YOUR SMARTPHONE TO DISCOVER OUR EDITORS’ PICKS FROM THE BUZZIEST BRANDS. = BUY ON SHOPBAZAAR.COM…

ALL ABOUT ROSE Aerin Rose de Grasse Rouge ($205) will undoubtedly be a hit with floral enthusiasts. It’s a bold scent crafted with rose water and a rare hundred-petaled centifolia rose found in Grasse, France. The addition of violet leaves, honeycomb, and musk lends a lush, sensual vibe. We wear it solo in the summer but plan to layer it with a spicier eau de parfum in the cooler months. GLOW-GETTERS A hybrid serum-highlighter, Drunk Elephant B-Goldi Bright Drops ($38) imparts a champagne sheen while also helping to fade sun spots with actives like niacinamide and diglucosyl gallic acid. You can tap it across your cheekbones, but we prefer to add a few drops to our favorite face cream. Top it off with a swipe of Givenchy Prisme Libre Blush…

FEATURED TRACKS 1. “ACT BAD” Diddy feat. City Girls and Fabolous 2. “BODY” Summer Walker 3. “SHAKE SUMN” DaBaby 4. SNOOZE” SZA 5. “LIKE DAT” Stunna Girl 6. “AREA CODES” Kali 7. “JUST WANNA ROCK” Lil Uzi Vert 8. “SUPER FREAKY GIRL” Nicki Minaj 9. “HEATED” Beyoncé 10. “BING BONG” BlakeIANA 11. “HOW TO PIMP A N**GA” City Girls 12. “AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM” Beyoncé 13. “MOONLIGHT” Kali Uchis 14. “PUT IT ON DA FLOOR” Latto 15. “HOT BOY” Nardo Wick feat. Lil Baby 16. “CREEPIN’” Metro Boomin, the Weeknd, and 21 Savage 17. “SPIN BOUT U” Drake and 21 Savage 18. “PUSSY TALK” City Girls feat. Doja Cat Since bursting onto the scene five years ago, Miami, a.k.a. Caresha Brownlee, and musical partner Jatavia “JT” Johnson have taken the hip-hop world by…

WHY DON’T YOU…? Keep things easy—and elegant—with a GRAY CREWNECK.…

The Embroidered Vest The Multigem Ring The Balloon-Sleeve Blouse The Embellished Frame Bag The Rectangular Watch The Linked Drop Earrings The Metallic Loafers The Utility Pants…

My dad is a hip-hop head. He loved N.W.A. He loved Tupac. He even listened to female rappers back in the day, like Left Eye, Trina, and Lil’ Kim. He loved Eve because he loved DMX, her Ruff Ryders labelmate. My dad was into cars heavy, so he had old-school cars with candy paint and big rims that he would rent out for music-video shoots. I was on set for the filming of Ciara’s “Goodies.” I was on some Jagged Edge video shoots and sets for B5, this group Diddy had. I remember my parents arguing about my dad having me on set until 2:00 a.m. on a school night. That’s definitely what made me want to do music: growing up around that scene. My mom and dad didn’t go…

Have you ever made art so daring that the U.S. Department of the Treasury called you up to talk about it? That’s the story nail artist Bernadette Thompson gets to tell about the manicure she did for Lil’ Kim on set in the late ’90s, setting off a chain of events that led to her becoming the first nail artist exhibited in New York’s Museum of Modern Art. “On sets back then, they wanted plain nails—beige, sheer pink, or clear,” Thompson says. “All she had were little short nails! So I went into my wallet, took money out, cut it up, and did a French manicure.” The result, now known as money nails, became a defining moment in the history of hip-hop and beauty. The look went viral before the…

Reese Witherspoon has described herself as having the energy of “a squirrel who drank coffee.” But just a cursory glance at her laundry list of achievements would seem to indicate that caffeinated-squirrel energy is, well, necessary. At 47, Witherspoon has amassed upwards of 60 acting credits over the past three-plus decades, among them culture-defining roles like Elle Woods in Legally Blonde and Tracy Flick in Election, as well as her Academy Award–winning portrayal of June Carter Cash in 2005’s Walk the Line. She has also racked up more than three dozen producing credits, most of them under the banner of Hello Sunshine, the sprawling media and production company she cofounded in 2016. Among them: HBO’s bingeworthy Big Little Lies, which took home eight Emmys. She runs an influential book club,…

THE CONCEPT OF PERFORMANCE always intrigued Richard Avedon, and Rudolf Nureyev was a consummate performer. When Avedon photographed the Russian-born dancer for Harper’s Bazaar, Nureyev was just 16 months removed from his dramatic defection from the former Soviet Union, which occurred in an airport bar in Paris while he was on tour with the Kirov Ballet—and in front of KGB officers who had demanded he leave the company in France and return to Moscow. Nureyev was 23 at the time—a lithe, powerful mover whose combination of grace and strength would help usher in a new era for ballet and shift the paradigm for male dancers. In the May 1963 issue, Bazaar referred to his innate star quality as “presence,” touting a highly anticipated appearance that month with Margot Fonteyn at…

WHY DON’T YOU…? Double down on the jewel tones with a set of multigem DROP EARRINGS.…

For millennia, pilgrims have set off by foot to sacred places and come to realize that it was the journey, not the destination, that was the most profound part of the experience. This was certainly true for the French stylist and set designer Christèle Ageorges and her husband, Hubert Delance, who were walking the legendary Camino de Santiago—a network of medieval pilgrimage routes through western Europe leading to the tomb of the Christian apostle Saint James in Santiago de Compostela, Spain—when they spotted an abandoned 18th-century tannery in the village of Lectoure in southwestern France. On a whim, they bought it and, after a three-year renovation, opened it as a small inn, La Manufacture Royale de Lectoure, complete with five unique rooms and suites, plus simple and affordable lodgings for…

Some visit Los Angeles to see the Hollywood sign, but I flew from New York to experience the culty health-food store Erewhon. I came for the Hailey Bieber strawberry smoothie, but it was an array of colorful canned beverages that caught my eye. As I leaned in closer, I didn’t recognize any alcoholic drinks or familiar sodas—just buzzwords I had seen only in my daily supplements, like ashwagandha and vitamin D. Other drinks boasted ingredients I often eat in salads, like apple-cider vinegar and mushrooms. I suddenly felt out of the loop. “These drinks are testing the limits of what can be turned into a beverage,” says Andrea Hernández, a food and drink forecaster and founder of Snaxshot, a newsletter about popular snacks and sips. “Consumers are looking for shortcuts…

Who was I imitating when I was 11, dressed in my grandmother’s old nightgown, telling my cousins they should call me Penelope? Who was I imitating when I began to sneak into my mother’s bathroom to experiment with her makeup? It felt powerful to see her alter the color of her lips or to darken the edges around her eyes and eyelashes. I wanted that power too—the command over someone’s attention. I used to think I was alone in such experiments until I wrote about them and learned that I was not. Lately, I have been trying to think of when I first saw someone in drag. Was it Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye singing a duet in the musical White Christmas? Or Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria? Barbra Streisand in…