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The Phantom Detective / Magazin-Reihe
> G. Wayman Jones (by Richard Curtis Van Loan) / The Jewels of Doom
(art: Will Gilbert)
Phantom Detective, Inc. / USA 1933
Reprint / Comic-Club NK 2010
ex libris MTP

More than two decades ago, Rihanna kicked down the doors of the music industry with her single “Pon de Replay,” which became a hit when she was just 17. Since then, she has grown to be one of the most recognizable—and beloved—musicians of all time. She has won nine Grammy Awards and is the youngest-ever solo performer with 14 No. 1 singles; but that’s just the beginning. With her multifaceted career, she has redefined what a strong-willed, forward-thinking artist can be.

In 2017, the Right Excellent Robyn Rihanna Fenty—as she is known in her native Barbados, where she has the designation of National Hero—set a new industry standard with Fenty Beauty, a range of cosmetics that catered to more than 40 shades of skin tone. The following year, she launched Savage x Fenty, a lingerie line with offerings in sizes XS to 4XL. She has had numerous collaborations with labels as varied as Puma and Chopard, and her Fenty label, created in partnership with LVMH, merged high fashion with street style. The Savage x Fenty runway shows, often held in stadium-size spaces with public access, ushered in a new class of diverse models and an aesthetic that promoted inclusivity long before it was a buzzword.

Rihanna also solidified a long-standing friendship that turned into a relationship with her now partner, the rapper (and style icon) A$AP Rocky. In 2022, she gave birth to their first child, Rza, having publicly acknowledged her desire to be a mother for several years. Riot, their second son, arrived in 2023, followed by a daughter, Rocki, in 2025. Even her most private moments led to a zeitgeist shift: During her pregnancies, Rihanna upended the expectations around maternity wear, accenting her round belly in edgy designs. She wore a skintight red Loewe catsuit during the 2023 Super Bowl, where she revealed her second pregnancy to more than 121 million viewers while performing on a suspended platform. She’s inspired a whole generation of expectant women, who might have otherwise felt pressured to shroud their growing bodies, to be free.

There is no particular secret to how Rihanna has accomplished all this: She has smashed glass ceilings and blasted her way into the pop culture stratosphere by being herself. She’ll, say, ask Mariah Carey to autograph her chest after seeing her in concert, or DM her favorite Real Housewives. It might seem like a no-brainer now, but in her early days, when celebrities relied on artificial, carefully curated images, her openness felt revolutionary. To this day, Rihanna seems always eager to take chances and make a statement. The story you see here, for instance, a fashion fantasy photographed by Tim Walker, marks Rocki’s first public appearance—dressed in a Dior Haute Couture diaper and headpiece that the designer Jonathan Anderson created just for her.

The ultrachic baby outfit is a tiny example of the inspiring partnerships that have made Rihanna such a beloved cultural figure. With that in mind, we asked some of her friends, collaborators, and fellow legends: What does it actually look like, up close, to be Rihanna? The picture that emerges is that of a singular artist, a mogul, and a mother who is unflinchingly resilient and always looking to lead rather than follow.

You and Rihanna have known each other for a long time, and have been together for several years. How has she changed?

A$AP Rocky, musician, actor, and partner to Rihanna: She has changed a lot because she became a mother in that time span, and that certainly changes you. But this woman has always been magic. Philosophically, the way she operates is on another level. She is the most charming and genuine person on Earth. Her energy is unmatched—one of a kind. I just adore her.

What’s something you enjoy doing together?

A$AP Rocky: We have so many of the same interests. We were addicted to watching documentaries, like the Bob Marley one. Watching films together is so fun. We must’ve watched El Cantante 15 times.

Can you summarize Rihanna in one sentence?

Pharrell Williams, musician and designer: She’s a force.

How has Rihanna changed the music industry?

Mary J. Blige, musician: Rihanna completely raised the bar and elevated the game. She is a fashion icon. She was dropping smashes back-to-back and bringing more awareness to dancehall mixed with R&B.

When did you first meet Rihanna?

Mariah Carey, musician: I was introduced to Rihanna when she was about 17 years old, by our mutual friend Jay-Z. She was just getting started, and I had a feeling she was going to be a major star. She’s a real girl’s girl.

At your 2024 concert, Rihanna asked you to sign her chest. What’s it like having her at your shows?

Carey: She brings such great energy! The chest-signing moment was a li’l out of the ordinary, but I thought it was hilarious!

You cowrote and were featured on the song “Consideration,” which was on Rihanna’s last album, Anti, in 2016. What’s it like working with her?

SZA, musician: She knows exactly what she wants. Her taste level is super unique. The second she heard “Consideration,” she didn’t hesitate. She said, “This one!” It was the coolest thing I had made at the time. I couldn’t believe she thought it was cool too. Very fever dream–coded!

What’s a standout memory you have of her?

SZA: We were about to perform at the Brit Awards in 2016. I had no experience and definitely didn’t know where the hell I was or what this meant. It was suggested that I basically wear a curtain and disappear, and when I told her, she immediately said, “Hell, no! We need you to look hot!” She made sure I got to pick whatever I wanted and looked cute. That’s how I ended up in booty shorts and fishnets for my first television performance.

Rihanna was your costar in the 2013 film This Is the End. What’s your favorite memory of her?

Jonah Hill, actor: After we shot This Is the End, I ran into her at a bar, and it was my birthday. She had a joint and was generous enough to share with my friends, and one of my friends got so stoned that she pooped her pants. Rihanna has that “make your friends shit their pants” weed.

When did you first meet Rihanna?

Paloma Elsesser, model: At the first Fenty Beauty shoot in 2017. I was nervous but so excited because I’m a true Rihanna stan. She expressed her gratitude for my being there and individually came up to every girl, offering sincere compliments. It was so insanely cool coming from the baddest bitch alive! Rihanna is powerful and comes on her time. Once she’s there, she is a commanding force—always delivering and bringing a potent and present energy.

What are three lessons you’ve learned from Rihanna that have helped your career?

Elsesser: Never deviate from your vision, bring your friends with you, and never give a fuck.

What is a standout memory you have of Rihanna?

Elsesser: Her scent. <3

How did you meet Rihanna? What was your first impression of her?

Sarah Paulson, actor: It was on the set of Ocean’s 8 [in which Rihanna played Nine Ball, a computer hacker], and I remember thinking she was the single most electrifying creature I’d ever laid eyes on. She seemed reserved, and that surprised me. She hadn’t done a ton of acting at this point, so I was struck by how much listening and watching she was doing. She was taking it all in, like a wise person.

What is a standout memory you have of Rihanna?

Paulson: My partner, Holland Taylor, visited me on set when we were shooting the heist scene at the Met. Rihanna was in this beautiful red dress, and when Holland saw her she let out a yelp, like, “Holy God.” Rihanna said to her, “You know what? You’re the MVP.” Holland went, “Why?” And she said, “Because you’ve got to put up with her,” and she pointed to me. Holland to this day will say to me, “Remember—even Rihanna knew what I have to deal with with your ass.” And I can’t argue with it. It was the most correct assessment. There was a part of Rihanna that I knew enjoyed how crazy I was—we laughed a lot. I was always freestyling, trying to come up with songs that I thought could be her next No. 1. She would look at me like, “You can’t sing. Your lyrics aren’t bad, but what you’re doing vocally is upsetting.”

What was it like working with Rihanna on your 2019 film, Guava Island?

Donald Glover, musician and actor: She came in very relaxed and malleable. She’d read and memorized everything already, but asked a lot of questions on what her character was looking for. It was cool to see her dive into it with no real fear of vulnerability. She just came in ready to play, which was really refreshing.

What’s a standout memory you have of her?

Glover: When she came to the house in Cuba before filming to just chat and meet my son. She bent down to his level and said, “How are you, little man?” And my son said nothing but then put his whole fist in his mouth. He’d never done that before, nor has he after. I laughed for the rest of the day. I think her aura was just too much for him.

What was it like meeting Rihanna in 2024 after years of citing her as an inspiration?

Ayra Starr, musician: It was one of the most amazing feelings, like two sisters, best friends reuniting after being apart for a long time. That’s my matriarch! Don’t play.

What is an important memory you have of Rihanna?

Starr: Sitting with her while we watched my music videos. The fact that she was pointing out her favorite parts felt so unreal. It honestly felt like a dream watching someone I’ve looked up to, listened to, and admired my whole life truly see me and appreciate my music. At the time, I was struggling with my self-image and confidence, so that moment meant everything. It felt like God had sent her to me.

You’ve made hats for Rihanna for more than a decade. What’s it like working with her?

Stephen Jones, milliner: The first one I made for her was in 2009: a little top hat she wore to a Dior Haute Couture show. She’s really into hats, she loves dressing up, and she doesn’t see it as a challenge. She’s an active participant in the creative process.

What’s a standout memory you have of Rihanna?

Jones: When I was making her a hat [that resembled a pope’s mitre] for the 2018 Met Gala. We went into her bathroom with a few different hats to try on. I said, “How do you want to look?” She replied, “Funny enough, nobody has asked me that. I want to look pretty.” I said, “The hat is quite heavy with all the embroidery,” and she said, “Have you seen the shoes? The hat is not the problem.”

What was it like working with her on this W shoot?

Jones: She loves playing. After the most recent Dior Haute Couture show, she wore one of the headpieces out for a party. She is as devoted to fashion as fashion is devoted to her.

What’s a standout memory you have of Rihanna?

Jonathan Anderson, creative director of Dior: During the Super Bowl, in a bathroom. I have never met someone so emotionally open, and who makes you feel at ease and is open to collaborating on any level. I think everything that she does comes from a state of kindness—it’s very rare in someone.

How is working with her different from working with other celebrity Dior ambassadors?

Anderson: She knows exactly who she is and what works on her. She knows how to interpret your creative vision and make it her own.

For this W shoot, there were some special couture items, like baby Rocki’s diaper and headpiece. How did those come about?

Anderson: The haute couture diaper is definitely a first for Dior. When Rihanna asks for something, she is already ahead of what is happening. She is thinking outside the box. When she has an idea, I’m always trusting in the process. I trust her implicitly on anything she feels that is right to do.

Hair by Mustafa Yanaz at Art + Commerce; makeup by Daniel Sällström at MA+ Group; manicure by Jenny Longworth at Streeters. Featuring Fenty Beauty, Fenty Hair, and Fenty Skin. Set design by Miguel Bento. Movement direction by Pat Boguslawski.

Produced by 138 Productions; Executive Producer: Simon Malivindi; Producer: Ashleigh Hayward; Lighting Director: Paul Burns; Photo Assistants: Antonio Perricone, Daniel Serrato; Digital Technician: Tony Ivanov; Gaffer: Quentin Play; Sparks: Jérôme Fabre, Teddy Moireau; Postproduction: Retouch and Print; PRINTING: GRAEME BULCRAIG AT RETOUCH AND PRINT; Production Coordinator: Géraldine Morat; Location Manager: Geoffroy Hassoun; Location Manager Assistant: Michael Chandlee; Production Assistants: Dejan Trajkov, Merlin Cigare, Maïa Constantin, Adrian Dohna, Flora Blin, Pierre Ménard, Antoine Chatenet; first Fashion Assistant: Amir Dayi; Fashion Assistants: Gabriel Lahanque, Alexis Landolfi; Tailor: Chantal Tin; Hair Assistants: Sofien Semmache, Sarah Itoua; Makeup Assistant: Martina Derosa; Special Thanks: DJ Andy and Liwan.

Between Brentwood and Beverly Hills, behind a dingy movie theater and down a series of damp alleys, sits the most exclusive members club in Los Angeles, a place where everybody is somebody. Countless famous people—writers Ray Bradbury and Truman Capote, comedic legends Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon, great beauties Farrah Fawcett and Natalie Wood—call this place home. If you can make it past the gates on a Friday night, you will see Hugh Hefner lying next to Marilyn Monroe. Oil tycoon Armand Hammer can be found with his family in their own private room. Unlike at the San Vicente Bungalows, you don’t have to know Claudia Sachs to become a member. And just a one-time payment gets you in—though it will run you six figures. The only catch is that to be a member of Pierce Brothers memorial park, you have to be dead.

Since the advent of Hollywood, the most beautiful girls and boys around the world have crammed onto buses and airplanes bound for Los Angeles to become somebody. Being somebody in Hollywood doesn’t just mean having a bigger house or a better job. It means that when you’re at a party, women won’t peer over your shoulder to see who else has arrived, and men won’t interrupt you in the middle of a story to get a drink. It means that even if your latest blockbuster fails to perform, and regardless of whether you have a spot on the lot, you will always be treated with respect. It’s no wonder, then, that L.A. has established itself as the status-anxiety capital of the world, a city where people will chase clout to the grave.

For your average status-conscious Angeleno, anxiety begins and ends with sleep. Sure, there are Oura rings—sleep trackers hidden in obtrusive pieces of jewelry. But Angelenos will spend hundreds of dollars more on Loftie sound machines, sleep masks from Violet Grey, and magnesium supplements -recommended by their most RFK Jr.–coded friends. Completely sober - 20- and 30-somethings are excusing themselves from dinner at Chateau Marmont at 9 p.m. so they can get to bed early. The status dinner is no longer about what you’re eating, but when. In Los Angeles, it’s perfectly acceptable to eat dinner out of a tin before the sun sets, standing alone in your high-contrast Calacatta kitchen.

The next jolt of panic comes with coffee. It’s wonderful to be greeted by name by one of the high-cheekboned baristas at Maru Coffee, on Hillhurst. But if you are truly somebody in Hollywood, you will be too important to waste 20 minutes driving to a coffee shop—not to mention the time it takes to find parking. Your house will be too high in the hills, and nobody wants to sit in bumper-to-bumper canyon traffic behind a Harvard-Westlake student who’s eating breakfast, texting, and shaving while driving to school. On the rare days you wake up feeling European and think, Let’s go to a coffee shop, you’ll remember that you might run into someone in line who needs something from you—a friend from USC film school who wants notes on their spec, or an ex-girlfriend who’s on her ninth step and is hoping to make amends. It’s much safer to invest thousands of dollars in a Jura coffee maker and source beans from the Gorigesha Forest. If you’re truly somebody, your personal chef will top the coffee with raw milk before your assistant—who was up hours before you—hands it to you as you get into your Escalade mobile office, complete with first-class seats, Wi-Fi, and a 43-inch flat-screen TV.

Some Angelenos will warn you against drinking this coffee on an empty stomach with the same intensity they warn against refined sugar or gluten or live ammunition. Their advice will come from a nutritionist—a person who spent years helping professional athletes win championships only to end up telling rich people that they shouldn’t eat chocolate pistachio gelato from Bacio di Latte in the middle of the night. This nutritionist will also tell you what carbs are acceptable to eat based on your blood type, and whether to intermittently fast or eat red meat—and which of these diets, at any given moment, are considered not just passé but potentially deadly.

If you’re somebody in Hollywood, you work out. Even though you work out to be thin and attractive, you will never admit this. You will tell people it’s to be healthy. Ten years ago, to brag about your Equinox membership or your spot in a Tracy Anderson class would have been perfectly acceptable. Today you will work out with a personal trainer in a private gym that looks like an S&M dungeon. To publicly exercise is now the domain of influencers, who flock by the dozen to Alo gym, an invite-only fitness studio in Beverly Hills. They will exchange Instagram posts for free personal training and an unlimited supply of leggings. In Los Angeles, a social media following means reservations at Alba and free trips to Costa Rica—but it will not get you into Guy Oseary’s Oscars party.

In the 1990s, if you were writing a movie scene about the quintessential L.A. woman, you would no doubt cut to her at Elizabeth Arden’s Red Door Spa with cucumbers on her eyes after she’d dropped off her 3-year-old at the Center. Smash cut to today. If you’re somebody in Hollywood, you don’t go to a spa. Instead, you have the personal number of facialist Iván Pol, who, even on the day of the Golden Globes, will bring his proprietary face-snatching radio frequency technology to you. Just take a look at the Zillow listings for high-end construction in L.A. If you are somebody in Hollywood, your home will come complete with a custom sauna, massage room, and cold plunge. And when these treatments inevitably fail to halt the passage of time, you will still rest easy beneath your Frette Eiderdown duvet. You know you can call Dr. Lancer and get an appointment the same day.

By and large, Angelenos do not care about food. Of course, there are exceptions—the kind of people who won’t stop talking about the line outside Max and Helen’s despite never waiting in it themselves. These people will post glossy images of patty melts and cinnamon rolls even though their bodies, shrunken by GLP-1s, will let them take only a few bites. The non-foodies usually stick to legacy restaurants frequented by the somebodies of yesteryear, like the Polo Lounge. While the Polo Lounge is half-full of tourists forward-thinking enough to make a reservation three months in advance, they will never get Jeffrey Katzenberg’s preferred table. Another watering hole, the Sunset Tower, has taken a different approach to crowd control: installing hulking men at the front door. If you’re somebody, you will sashay past the sentry and be greeted, by name, by Dimitri. No matter who you are in Hollywood, this will make you feel more alive.

And then there is Erewhon. To be someone in Hollywood, you will have sampled the smoothies full of vanilla collagen and spirulina and paid $23 for a piece of salmon that has sat out all day. Nevertheless, having consulted your nutritionist, you’ll have learned that the smoothies are full of sugar and the salmon is farm-raised. You will realize that the Santa Monica Farmers Market has the same produce at half the price. After going through the hell that is the Hollywood and Beverly Hills Erewhon parking lots, you will emerge with the realization that Erewhon is ultimately just a grocery store. Besides, there’s no way Hailey Bieber got that body eating coconut soft serve, whether it’s dairy-free or not.

Of course, there are Angelenos who go to Erewhon for the people—women with the brazen hope that they might meet a man who not only knows but also cares about NAD+. There will be something pure about this, because most men in L.A. are too afraid of cancellation or blind items posted on Deuxmoi to actually speak to a stranger. As a result of this fear, people across Los Angeles really are still on Raya. If you are a man on the app, you will compete with Olympians and television producers who have found a way to post about their trips to Aspen or their Emmy Awards without seeming like douchebags. If you are a woman, you will be compared to former Victoria’s Secret models and the women on Dancing With the Stars. But do not retouch your photos—remember, if you do manage to match with someone, you do not want to go through the humiliation of being compared to the image of yourself that you created, and to which you will never be able to live up.

If you are starting to think that chasing status in Hollywood means living alone in a house full of strangers you pay to be there, paralyzed by the fear that you will be spotted driving the wrong Porsche on the wrong highway at the wrong time, then you are starting to get the point. By the time you have spent thousands to become a member of the best clubs in L.A.—the Bird Streets, the San Vicente Bungalows, and Living Room—you will have learned the hard way that no matter how crispy their fries or bespoke their wallpaper, these places do not complete your life in the way you hoped they would. And that’s part of what makes L.A. so great. This is a city where people who have tasted the upper echelons of status understand how little it means. It’s no coincidence that some of the biggest talents of our day—Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael B. Jordan, Charlize Theron—bring their mothers as their dates and have the same friends from the before times, before they were somebodies.

If you are driven to the brink of insanity to find out that at the end of the rainbow, there’s really no place like home, I know a guy who can get you a bed at UCLA. Which is, if I’m being honest, the only mental hospital really worth recuperating at in Los Angeles.

You may not know his name, but you have seen his work. Co Rentmeester is described as Life magazine's favorite cover photographer, and has been the recipient of the World Press Photo award not once but twice.

[Read More]

After growing up in a town whose defining distinction was a zipper factory, Sharon Stone moved to New York City in the late 1970s. At 19 years old, she signed with Ford Models and lived around the corner from CBGB. “When you’re from a small town, you either have a sense of moral authority or you die,” says Stone. “You have to lean on your sense of self, not your sense of environment.” After pivoting to acting in the ’80s, Stone experienced true fame with 1990’s Total Recall. Her costar Arnold Schwarzenegger gave her a crash course in dealing with the press: “If they ask you about your personal life and your sex life, you’re allowed to ask them about their sex life.” Although she identifies as an introvert, Stone has often hit the global social circuit to promote causes close to her heart. She’s a longtime advocate for those with HIV/AIDS and is the cofounder of Planet Hope, a charity that helps underprivileged children. All the while, Hollywood has never quit calling. Several of her films—notably Basic Instinct—have elicited controversy, so it’s only fitting for her to have joined the third season of HBO’s Euphoria, which premiered April 12. “I don’t think I’ve ever had that much genuine joy,” she says of filming for the series. “It’s a really lovely period in my life.”

Stone was born in Meadville, Pennsylvania. Her father “grew up in a barn stall,” and, as a child, her mother worked as a maid. “My parents got married at 16 and 17. I was this wide-eyed, happy baby, and my mother was just like, What the hell is happening here?” says Stone. Above: Stone with her mother. “You can see she’s just not into being a mom, poor thing.”

“Clearly, my mother had cut my hair,” says Stone of this photo from her third birthday party. Industrial Meadville was a far cry from the glitzy Hollywood she’d one day inhabit. “Kids drove their tractors to school in the morning after they finished their chores. My town still has parking spots for buggies for the Amish people.”

In the early 1980s, Stone turned to acting and moved to Los Angeles. Shortly after her move, the actor George Hamilton handpicked her to appear alongside him in a photo shoot set in Hawaii. They became friends, and he introduced her around Hollywood. “I met this very tony group of very wealthy, very high-end people and was invited to these fancy dinner parties.” He also brought her to the Golden Globes in 1982.

Stone’s first speaking role was in Wes Craven’s Deadly Blessing (1981). On set, she met Mimi Craven (left), who became her red carpet accomplice. Here, they’re pictured at the 1993 MTV Movie & TV Awards. “We were best friends for a very, very long time. She saved my life,” says Stone. When Stone suffered a stroke in 2001, doctors initially thought she was faking her symptoms. Craven intervened and demanded they take more tests.

In 1990, Stone traveled to the Cannes Film Festival to drum up press for Total Recall a few weeks before its release. At that point, she had a string of B movies to her credit and didn’t receive a star’s welcome. “The airline lost my luggage. I was wearing the same three pieces of clothing in 14 different ways, and people were kind of side-eyeing me. I was very shy, and I didn’t know exactly what I was doing.” Luckily, she ran into the famously friendly talent agent Shep Gordon. “He put me in his car, and he took me to two or three dress shops.”

At the 1991 opening of the first Planet Hollywood in New York City, Stone ended up onstage singing with Bruce Willis (center), one of the restaurant’s co-owners. The pair had met in very ’80s fashion: filming a wine cooler commercial. “Bruce had just done Moonlighting, and he got a job doing a commercial for Seagram’s wine coolers. I was cast as the girl, and we became friends.”

Stone’s starring role in Paul Verhoeven’s 1992 film Basic Instinct cemented her status as an icon. A definitive entry in the erotic-thriller canon, the movie was the subject of controversy thanks to its infamous interrogation scene. Three weeks after its release, Stone was booked to host Saturday Night Live and parodied the interrogation. “The musical guest was Pearl Jam. I had such a crush on them.”

Stone’s high-wire turn in Martin Scorsese’s Casino earned her both a Golden Globe win and an Oscar nomination. It’s also, arguably, Stone’s most fashion-forward on-screen role. “Rita Ryack, an astonishing costume designer, made this Courrèges outfit. She copied it exactly from that period, right down to the logo,” says Stone, pictured here with her costar Robert De Niro, of the film’s early-1980s wardrobe. The one piece Stone took from the set: the Emilio Pucci top her character died in.

Stone walked her first runway in 1992, when Thierry Mugler asked her to be in an AIDS benefit show held in Los Angeles. “I wore three wigs, one on top of the other,” says Stone. In 2025, she reunited with the Mugler brand to front their campaign for an archive-inspired capsule collection, which featured two dozen reinterpretations of Mugler’s vintage designs.

The cover of Rolling Stone’s 1992 “Hot Issue” cemented Stone as an emblem of 1990s Hollywood. Stone unwittingly designed the cover outfit herself: “I walked in, and [photographer Albert Watson] handed me a T-shirt and an X-Acto knife. He said, ‘Cut this up,’ and I did it. Then he went, ‘Now put it on.’ I was like, ‘Well, okay.’ ”

In 1993, Stone closed Valentino’s spring 1994 ready-to-wear show. Long before relationships between designers and Hollywood stars were de rigueur, Stone and Valentino Garavani had formed a strong fashion bond. In 1995, she wore a custom Valentino dress to the Cannes Film Festival and had the man himself on her arm.

For 1995’s The Quick and the Dead, Stone secured the lead role and helped find her partner in crime. She was intent on casting Leonardo DiCaprio, who was just starting his career. “Leo had something that every other boy [auditioning] did not—a kind of unique vulnerability.” To get DiCaprio the job, Stone paid his salary herself. Off set, they became friends. “My sister and I took him go-kart racing for his 17th birthday. He was trying out flirting on me, just to see how it would go. Oh my God, it was hilarious. Now he’s the global heartthrob.”

Stone emceed many starry concerts thrown for veterans at the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base, in California. Of all the performers, Stone hit it off best with James Brown. “He said, ‘I want you to sing backup with the girls.’ And I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me!’” remembers Stone. “I did it a few times, which is even crazier.” Above: She’s pictured joining Brown during an encore at his birthday concert in Augusta, Georgia, in 1994. Stone assumed she’d be singing backup again but was surprised with a duet of “I Got You (I Feel Good).” “I managed to shake my moneymaker and get through it.”

While some A-listers stayed far away from the madcap MTV Movie & TV Awards, Stone, a two-time winner, was a frequent guest. Left: She poses with director Quentin Tarantino at the 1995 edition. “Quentin colors outside the lines, and he really appreciates it if you understand that the sweetest fruit is at the end of the branch,” she says. Right: Stone at the 1996 awards with Dennis Rodman.

In 1996, Stone stepped out on Rodeo Drive for an event benefitting Inner-City Arts. There, she had a moment with the Spanish opera singer Plácido Domingo. “He came over to my table and said, ‘I’m in love with you.’ I was being a wiseass, so I said, ‘Sure you are. If you’re in love with me, you’d sing to me right now.’ So he just started singing opera to me at the top of his lungs at my table. The entire room was like, What is going on?”

Being friends with Donatella Versace “is like a warm bath,” says Stone. The actor’s 2004 divorce from journalist Phil Bronstein was a topic of tabloid intrigue, and Versace offered her a safe haven. “She invited me to Gianni’s house in Lake Como, Italy. She asked our friend Prince Albert [of Monaco] to send his butler to take care of me. Down by the lake, there’s this beautiful semicircle seat around an eternal flame that has a baby deer over it, which is Gianni’s grave. I hiked down every day and sat in there and meditated with Gianni.”

Stone has campaigned tirelessly for HIV/AIDS-related causes throughout her career, but this meeting with Magic Johnson (above left) at a 1996 amfAR benefit had extra meaning: The Los Angeles Lakers legend was the unlikely inspiration for her performance in Basic Instinct. “When Magic was playing, I went every chance I got because I was obsessed with his no-look pass, ” she said. “I decided that my character understood the no-look pass, and that was how she functioned. I based her movements on how Johnson ran his team without ever looking at them.”

Stone often makes giving a family affair. She and her sister, Kelly, cofounded Planet Hope, a charity that provides educational resources for underprivileged kids. Above: Stone at a 1994 event, where she was honored with a Spirit of Compassion Award, alongside her dates for the night: (from left) her brother Michael; her mother, Dorothy; and Kelly.

In 2000, Stone starred opposite Ellen DeGeneres in If These Walls Could Talk 2, directed by Anne Heche, DeGeneres’s partner at the time. Stone and Heche (far left) joined Cher, who had starred in the original film, to pick up an award at the 2000 Women in Film Honors. “That I got to spend the day with Cher was really a highlight of my life. She’s probably one of the coolest women who ever walked the planet.”

Stone has three adopted sons: Roan, Laird, and Quinn. “I made this very brave decision to raise three boys, knowing that no one would want to date me, because men are innately selfish. It’s the greatest thing I ever chose to do,” says Stone, who’s pictured with her boys. “When they were little, they would ask, ‘What kind of family are we?’ I would say, ‘We’re a happy family.’ When they started first grade and the other kids all had dads, they said, ‘They have dads.’ I would say, ‘Wait till the third grade.’ And by the third grade, half of their friends did not have dads. And I was like, ‘See, we’re a happy family.’ ”

Stone picked up painting during the pandemic and hasn’t stopped. Of the image above, she says, “I’m an obsessive swimmer. I got out of the pool, and I saw something on the painting that I wanted to fix. My friend took that picture, and I was like, ‘Well, now the whole world can see that I have no ass.’ ” She’s since staged solo shows in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Connecticut, and Berlin.

Stone’s role on Euphoria pairs her with Maude Apatow, who plays Lexi Howard, the quiet sister of Cassie (played by Sydney Sweeney). Maude “is very special, very smart, and super professional,” says Stone. “I’ve told her that she is my secret daughter-in-law. I’ve claimed her.” Stone also got a chance to share a set with fellow Euphoria newcomer Homer Gere, the son of her Intersection costar Richard Gere. “I really loved that because Richard and I have been friends for 100 years.”

For her first-ever performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, in 2024, Chappell Roan dressed as a knight—fully armored, complete with a crossbow. Her look was reminiscent of a famous 1997 photograph of Fiona Apple for Life magazine, in which the singer stands in a crowded subway car, fitted in a knight’s plate of armor. Nearly two decades before Apple, Kate Bush posed like a medieval soldier for the music magazine Melody Maker. These artists announced their arrivals like latter-day Joans of Arc: not to be easily dismissed, not to be trifled with.

If you look at the spring 2026 runway shows, it seems that women from all walks of life are following those anti-ingenues’ lead. Burberry featured a shirt made of small diamond-shaped plates that looked like lamellar armor. Conner Ives created a gown with a druidesque hood. McQueen and Stefan Cooke showed chain mail dresses, while Chopova Lowena used the material to accent a velvet leg-of-mutton gown. Yuhan Wang went all in, presenting a chest plate.

The medieval aesthetic has decidedly European roots. The Middle Ages—which lasted roughly 1,000 years, from the fall of the Roman Empire to the start of the Renaissance—is considered to be the birth of fashion by many historians. Before then, European clothing consisted mostly of gender-neutral, figure-agnostic coverings. Through the Silk Road, new ways of dressing arrived in Europe. Tailoring became a necessity for men because of the newly widespread use of horses and full-body armor. As for women, dresses became more formfitting, with laces along the waist to create an hourglass silhouette. Simultaneously, an emerging class of merchants sought to get away from the tunics that peasants wore. The period brought “a new exaltation of individuality,” according to the French philosopher and sociologist Gilles Lipovetsky. “To be unique, to attract attention by displaying signs of difference—these became legitimate aspirations.”

In our own era, designers have often evoked medieval attire, from Paco Rabanne, who made dresses by linking aluminum discs and plates in the 1960s, to Vivienne Westwood, whose now famous 1989 Armor Ring referenced a knight’s glove. “It’s easy to wear, it’s comfortable, it fits on a lot of body shapes,” says Heather Mbaye, chair of the Medieval Dress and Textile Society, of the medieval silhouette. Plus, the styles are open to interpretation. “There’s a reason it was called the Dark Ages,” jokes costume researcher Leighton Bowers. “There’s not a ton of information about clothes, and a lot of what you find references the same sources.”

Case in point: Chain mail, often featured in eveningwear nowadays, was worn primarily for fighting, and the vast majority of women weren’t allowed to go into battle. The grand exception was, of course, Joan of Arc. But even she didn’t wear maille while leading the French army to victory during the Hundred Years’ War. King Charles VII gave her a suit of white armor, without any ornamentation. Some historians say that Joan didn’t even wear a helmet, so that people could see the face of the teenage girl who had been guided by angels to fight for France.

Is this new obsession with the Middle Ages a longing for a simpler era? Maybe and probably. At the very least, it’s clear that many of us need some form of armor to deal with modern life.

Runway, From left: Courtesy of Conner Ives; Courtesy of Chopova Lowena; Courtesy of Burberry; Courtesy of McQueen; Courtesy of Yuhan Wang; Courtesy of Colleen Allen; Courtesy of Stefan Cooke; Courtesy of Givenchy. Center: Getty Images.