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As Kaia Gerber’s proven on multiple occasions, sleekly minimalist fashion can fit a wide array of dress codes and events. Her latest, courtesy of Alaïa, added a sharp edge to her darker style streak, bringing it an additional dimension.

In Paris, Gerber stepped out for the Snap Inc-sponsored luanch of artist JR’s takeover of the Pont Neuf bridge, stepped out in an ensemble featuring a draped brown jersey skirt and strapless black leather bodice. The piece’s bustier-style top included a row of small, paneled cutouts down its center, bringing the design a sultry touch.

For an effortless complement, Gerber’s sleek attire was paired with a tousled hairstyle and french-tipped pedicure. Her look was complete with a muted rose-pink lip color—an evergreen shade that’s grown popular through recent launches by Charlotte Tilbury, Hourglass Cosmetics, bareMinerals, Bobbi Brown, and more.

Gerber finished her ensemble by slipping on a pair of black leather open-toed mules. The style added a streamlined, barely-there base for her outfit from their stiletto heels and thin, subtly curved straps. While matching her outfit’s darker tones, the style was also one that Gerber’s worn before. Earlier this spring, the star stepped out in a similar pair of heels while promoting her upcoming role in FX’s The Shards during the Disney Upfronts in New York City, as well.

With its mixed textures and nonchalantly slick cutouts, Gerber’s Alaïa look brought a new addition to her recent fashion repertoire. This year, she’s embraced a darker neutral color palette across an assortment of lacy dresses and crop top sets on the red carpet, hailing from labels including Givenchy and Jacquemus. While off-duty, hints of classic white and blue denim have still shown that Gerber can embrace her carefree California roots, as well—an aesthetic that’s also signature to her supermodel mom Cindy Crawford. As The Shards premiere approaches this fall, Gerber’s sure to have plenty of darkly chic looks in store for the red carpet. How and if they add to her current range, however, remains to be seen.

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There’s only one party that boasts a guest list that includes Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Sabrina Carpenter, Lisa, and Zoë Kravitz: the Met Gala. They’re just a few of the A-list names who hit the red carpet at the 2026 event. The chair committee alone was enough to rival even the Oscar’s red carpet. This year, the theme of the evening was “Costume Art,” an exploration of how the body and clothing are represented in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s vast collection. The dress code further clarified red carpet expectations. Guests were asked to consider the idea that “Fashion is Art” when choosing their looks for the evening. Basically, the body is a canvas and designers are the artists bringing it to life.

The result was a surplus of art-inspired ensembles, as well as looks that featured more skin than fabric. Naked dressing has been a popular choice at the Met for years now, and with the theme literally mentioning the body, it more or less took over the stairs. At an event like the Met Gala, everyone is vying for attention, but with Beyoncé on the red carpet—especially after almost a decade without her there—it wasn’t easily achieved.

Beyoncé, who acted as a co-chair, alongside Kidman, Venus Williams, and Anna Wintour, attended not only in a custom Olivier Rousteing design, but she also brought her daughter, Blue Ivy, along. Both showed off their style in vastly different looks, but they were hardly the only ensembles worth studying. Many stars brought the drama to the 2026 Met Gala. Below, see all of the celebrity red carpet looks from the 2026 Met Gala.

Beyoncé

In Olivier Rousteing with Chopard jewelry.

Rihanna

In Maison Margiela with jewelry from Briony Raymond, Glenn Spiro, Fred Leighton, and Dyne.

A$AP Rocky

In Chanel.

Rosé

In Saint Laurent with Tiffany & Co. jewelry.

Madonna

In Saint Laurent.

Kim Kardashian

In Allen Jones and Whitaker Malem.

Sabrina Carpenter

In Dior with Cartier jewelry.

Cardi B

In Marc Jacobs.

Doechii

In Marc Jacobs with David Webb jewelry.

Jennie

In Chanel.

SZA

In Bode with Maison Spoiled jewelry.

Charli xcx

In Saint Laurent with David Yurman jewelry.

Lisa

In Robert Wun with Bulgari jewelry.

Teyana Taylor

In Tom Ford by Haider Ackermann.

Kylie Jenner

In Schiaparelli.

Jisoo

In Dior with Cartier jewelry.

Hailey Bieber

In Saint Laurent with Belperron jewelry.

Kendall Jenner

In GapStudio by Zac Posen with Buccellati jewelry.

Doja Cat

In Saint Laurent.

Zoë Kravitz

In Saint Laurent with Jessica McCormack jewelry.

Margot Robbie

In Chanel.

Nicole Kidman

In Chanel.

Anne Hathaway

In Michael Kors Collection with Bulgari jewelry.

Hunter Schafer

In Prada.

Blue Ivy Carter

In Balenciaga with Henry & Henry jewelry.

Jay-Z

In Louis Vuitton with Briony Raymond jewelry.

Amanda Seyfried

In Prada with Tiffany & Co. jewelry.

Blake Lively

In Versace with Lorraine Schwartz jewelry.

Julianne Moore

In Bottega Veneta with Messika jewelry.

Sombr

In Valentino.

Gigi Hadid

In Miu Miu with Jessica McCormack jewelry.

Odessa A'zion

In Valentino with Pandora jewelry.

Colman Domingo

In Valentino with an Omega watch and Boucheron jewelry.

Kate Moss

In Saint Laurent with A La Vieille Russie jewelry.

Carey Mulligan

In Prada with Tiffany & Co. jewelry.

Katy Perry

In Stella McCartney with a Miodrag Guberinic headpiece and Wempe jewelry.

Ayo Edebiri

In Chanel.

Laufey

In Tory Burch and Bucherer jewelry.

Tyla

In Valentino.

Venus Williams

In Swarovski.

Gracie Abrams

In Chanel.

Angela Bassett

In Prabal Gurung with Messika jewelry.

Claire Foy

In Erdem.

Emily Blunt

In Ashi Studios with Mikimoto jewelry.

Tate McRae

In Ludovic de Saint Sernin and The Back Vault jewelry.

Chase Infiniti

In Thom Browne with Marli jewelry.

Naomi Osaka

In Robert Wun with Lagos jewelry.

Irina Shayk

In Alexander Wang.

Tyriq Withers

In Louis Vuitton with David Yurman jewelry and a Jaeger-LeCoultre watch.

Serena Williams

In Marc Jacobs with David Yurman jewelry and an Audemars Piguet watch. .

Camila Morrone

In Tory Burch with David Yurman jewelry.

Suki Waterhouse

In Michael Kors Collection and Boucheron jewelry.

María Zardoya

In Matières Fécales with Pandora jewelry.

Sarah Paulson

In Matières Fécales with Boucheron jewelry.

Alyssa Liu

In Louis Vuitton with Pasquale Bruni jewelry.

Sarah Pidgeon

In Loewe.

Paul Anthony Kelly

In Dior with a Vacheron Constantin watch.

Bill Skarsgård

In Thom Browne.

Olivia Wilde

In Thom Browne.

Damson Idris

In Prada.

Gwendoline Christie

In Giles Deacon.

Hoyeon

In Louis Vuitton.

Ciara

In Celia Kritharioti with Ofira jewelry.

Kris Jenner

In Dolce & Gabbana.

Romeo Beckham

In Burberry with De Beers London jewelry.

Tom Sturridge and Alexa Chung

Sturridge is in Simone Rocha. Chung is in Dior.

Hudson Williams

In Balenciaga with Bulgari jewelry.

Connor Storrie

In Saint Laurent with Tiffany & Co. jewelry and an Omega watch.

Cara Delevingne

In Ralph Lauren with De Beers London jewelry.

Stevie Nicks

In Zara by John Galliano with a Stephen Jones hat and Tiffany & Co. jewelry.

Sam Smith

In Christian Cowan.

Bad Bunny

In Zara.

Gabrielle Union-Wade

In Michael Kors Collection with Tiffany & Co. jewelry.

Dwyane Wade

In Michael Kors Collection and Jacques Marie Mage sunglasses and Tiffany & Co. jewelry.

Rauw Alejandro

In Saint Laurent with Chopard jewelry.

Ningning

In Gucci.

Maude Apatow

In Valentino couture with Brilliant Earth jewelry.

Ben Platt

In Tanner Fletcher.

Lena Dunham

In Valentino.

Ejae

In Swarovski.

Maluma

In Tom Ford by Haider Ackermann with Bulgari jewelry.

Nia Long

In Laquan Smith.

Troye Sivan

In Prada with Pandora jewelry.

Rebecca Hall and Morgan Spector

Hall is in Tom Ford by Haider Ackerman with Gabriel & Co. jewelry. Spector is in Tom Ford by Haider Ackerman with an IWC watch.

Lily-Rose Depp

In Chanel.

Naomi Watts

In Dior with Briony Raymond jewelry.

Patrick Schwarzenegger

In Public School with David Yurman jewelry.

Paloma Elsesser

In Bureau of Imagination by Francesco Risso with Bernard James jewelry.

Bhavitha Mandava and Awar Odhiang

In Chanel.

Cher

In Burberry.

Alex Consani

In Gucci.

Liline Jacquemus and Simon Porte Jacquemus

In Jacquemus.

Keke Palmer

In Prabal Gurung.

Sunday Rose Kidman Urban

In Dior.

Danny Ramirez

In Michael Kors Collection with Cartier jewelry.

Adut Akech

In Thom Browne.

Camila Mendes

In Manish Malhotra.

Janelle Monáe

In Christian Siriano with Rainbow K jewelry.

Amelia Gray

In Saint Laurent with Chopard jewelry.

Yseult

In Harris Reed with Chopard jewelry.

Nicholas Hoult

In Prada with a Vacheron Constantin watch and Tiffany & Co. jewelry.

Coco Jones

In Prabal Gurung.

Suleika Jaouad and Jon Batiste

Batiste in ERL with Cartier jewelry.

Ludovic De Saint Sernin and Ivy Getty

In Ludovic De Saint Sernin.

Emma Chamberlain

In Mugler with Chopard jewelry.

Angel Reese

In Altuzarra with Smiling Rocks jewelry.

Jesse Jo Stark

In Burberry.

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

In Burberry with Tiffany & Co. jewelry.

Louisa Jacobson

In Dilara Findikoglu.

Lila Moss

In Conner Ives.

Rachel Sennott

In Marc Jacobs.

Grace Gummer

In Gabriela Hearst.

Chase Sui Wonders

In McQueen with Tiffany & Co. jewelry.

Rami Malek

In Saint Laurent with Cartier jewelry.

Laura Harrier

In Di Petsa with jewelry from Briony Raymond and Isabel Delgado.

Jaafar Jackson

In Polo Ralph Lauren.

Ashley Graham

In De Petsa with Zales jewelry.

Rachel Zegler

In Prabal Gurung.

Law Roach

In Ami.

Ayesha Curry and Stephen Curry

In Balenciaga with Cartier jewelry.

Maya Hawke

In Prada.

Babyface

In LaQuan Smith.

Simone Ashley

In Stella McCartney with De Beers London jewelry.

Sam Pinkleton

In Tanner Fletcher.

Misty Copeland

In Michael Kors Collection with Effy jewelry.

Daisy Edgar-Jones

In McQueen with Boucheron jewelry.

Tessa Thompson

In Valentino with Pandora jewelry.

Joey King

In Miu Miu.

Russell Westbrook

In Gap by Zac Posen.

Skepta

In Thom Browne with a Audemars Piguet watch.

Dree Hemingway

In Valentino couture with Pandora jewelry.

Joe Alwyn

In Valentino with a Hublot watch.

Maxwell Osborne and Dao-Yi Chow

In Public School.

Huma Abedin

In Prabal Gurung with Briony Raymond jewelry.

Vittoria Ceretti

In Carolina Herrera.

Ana Amelia Batlle Cabral and Marcello Hernández

Hernández is in Thom Browne. Hernández is in Oscar De La Renta.

Grace Ling

In Grace Ling.

Jordan Roth

In Robert Wun.

Lindsey Vonn

In Thom Browne.

Donatella Versace and Alessandro Michele

Versace is in Versace.

Adwoa Aboah

In Simone Rocha with jewelry from Sauer and Nikos Koulis.

Lauren Wasser

In Prabal Gurung with Megan Piccione jewelry and a Hublot watch.

Amy Sherald

In Thom Browne with an Esenshel headpiece.

Tschabalala Self

In Brandon Blackwood with Bernard James jewelry.

Selby Drummond

In Conner Ives.

Sabine Getty

In Ashi Studio with AdaLioryn jewelry.

Audrey Nuna

In Robert Wun with Messika jewelry.

Imaan Hammam

In Saint Laurent.

Yumi Shin and Joseph Altuzarra

In Altuzarra.

Felicity Blunt and Stanley Tucci

Blunt is in Etro. Tucci is in Etro with a Breitling watch.

Elizabeth Debicki

In Vera Wang.

Heidi Klum

In Mike Marino.

Alexi Ashe and Seth Meyers

Meyers in Gabriela Hearst.

Anok Yai

In Balenciaga.

Ahn Hyo-Seop

In Valentino.

Anderson .Paak

In Amiri with Cartier jewelry and an Audemars Piguet watch.

Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor

Taylor in Bibhu Mohapatra.

Finn Wolfhard

In Thom Browne and a Jaeger-LeCoultre watch.

Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin

In Prada.

Anna Weyant

In Marc Jacobs.

Tom Ford

Jack Harlow

In Torishéju.

Lauren Hashian and Dwayne Johnson

In Thom Browne.

Tory Burch

In vintage Mugler.

Greta Gerwig and Stella McCartney

Gerwig is in Effy jewelry.

Isla Johnston

In Loewe.

Lux Pascal

In Cult Gaia.

Luke Evans

In Palomo with a Hublot watch.

Charlotte Gainsbourg

In Saint Laurent.

Vera Wang

In Vera Wang.

Cai Xukun

In Thom Browne.

Liu Wen

In Michael Kors Collection and Chopard jewelry.

Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster

Jackman is in Giorgio Armani. Foster is in Monse with Fred Leighton jewelry.

Georgina Chapman

Russell Wilson

In Brandon Blackwood with Jacques Marie Mage sunglasses.

John Lithgow and Mary Yeager

Lithgow in Gabriela Hearst.

Evan Spiegel and Miranda Kerr

In Dior

Justin Jefferson

In a Hublot watch.

Jeremy Pope

In Vivienne Westwood.

Anja Rubik

In Boucheron jewelry.

Joe Burrow

In Bode with Cartier jewelry.

Miles Chamley-Watson

In Kidsuper with Messika jewelry.

Georgina Rodríguez

In Ludovic de Saint Sernin with Chopard jewelry.

Jimmy Butler

In Alo.

Amy Fine Collins

Jasmine Tookes

In Sophie Couture with Maison Spoiled jewelry.

Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez

In Loewe.

Loli Bahia

In Saint Laurent.

Hamish Bowles

In Charles Jeffrey Loverboy.

Aurora James

In vintage Emanuel Ungaro with Ana Khouri jewelry.

Hero Fiennes Tiffin

In Valentino.

Dasha Zhukova

In Prada.

Anna Wintour

In Chanel.

Adrien Brody

In Dior.

Eileen Gu

In Iris Van Herpen.

Karlie Kloss

In Dior with Cartier jewelry.

Chloe Malle

In Colleen Allen.

Lala Anthony

In Wiederhoeft and Lorraine Schwartz.

Lauren Sánchez Bezos

In Schiaparelli with Lorraine Schwartz jewelry.

Bee Carrozzini

In Givenchy with jewelry from Briony Raymond and Jenna Blake.

Wendi Murdoch

In Miss Sohee.

Gayle King

In Christian Siriano.

Following an £8m investment over five years, The University of Manchester is set to lead an innovative centre funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and UKRI as part of its strategic focus on building a green future. The Centre for Joined Up Sustainability Transformations (JUST) will accelerate the understanding of a just transition by coordinating research into action at all levels of society.

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Several decades before Jennifer Venditti became one of the most in-demand casting directors in Hollywood—a woman known for her uncanny ability to pick a potential scene-stealer out of the crowd at, say, a nerd-packed anime convention or an acne-blighted high school cafeteria—she orchestrated her own casting, at a Midwestern shopping mall. It was the dawn of the ’90s, and Venditti, who grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, was a student at Chicago’s International Academy of Merchandising and Design when she heard that one of her idols, the designer Anna Sui, would be making a local in-store appearance. With her boyfriend in tow and her résumé in hand, Venditti dressed herself (and her man, who happened to be a model) in the most eye-catching vintage she could get her hands on—“I was really obsessed with the whole grunge thing,” she says—and headed to the event, where she waited for her moment. Sure enough, Sui approached. “She liked what we were wearing,” Venditti remembers. Over the course of a quick conversation, Venditti expressed her desire to land a summer internship in the New York fashion world. Sui instructed her to fax her résumé to Keeble Cavaco & Duka, one of the top fashion PR and production firms (now known as KCD), and within weeks Venditti was working under the agency’s runway producer, Nian Fish, on a Calvin Klein show. She dressed models backstage and spent hours with the brand’s head of show production, the soon-to-be Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. She never made it back to school in Chicago.

After two years at KCD, where she did “a little bit of everything” but ultimately concentrated on casting, Venditti left to assist the stylist Lori Goldstein. It was, in many ways, a dream job. “I was traveling around the world with all the top photographers, doing stuff with Madonna and Annie Leibovitz,” she says. But she eventually got frustrated by what she saw as the industry’s closed-minded lack of creativity when it came to models. “It was rules and dogma and trends: Someone’s saying this is what it is, and then everyone else is doing their version of that. First it was Brazilian beauty, then Belgian beauty.…” One day, she was working on a magazine cover shoot, and “I just looked around and thought, I can’t do this anymore.” She decided to start her own agency, hoping to encourage a more expansive definition of beauty through street casting.

Her timing was spot-on. With the supermodel era winding down and reality TV on the rise, stylists and photographers were realizing that so-called regular people (who were more often not actually “regular” but in some way unusual looking) could be an especially compelling addition to fashion shoots. One of the first to embrace the idea was W’s creative director at the time, Dennis Freedman, who hired Venditti to cast some of the magazine’s most elaborate fashion stories. Whereas today “we have the street through Instagram,” says Venditti, in those pre–social media days, street casting involved marathons of pavement-pounding. She combed Brazilian favelas in search of interesting faces for a story by Philip-Lorca diCorcia and scoured Penn State for a David Sims portfolio set at the school. Her most memorable trip, she says, was to Appalachia, where she befriended a young mother of five named Melissa and cast her in the 1998 Peter Lindbergh story “Coal Country.” “The magazine sent me all over the world with a Polaroid, and I just got to explore,” Venditti remembers. “Dennis never even gave me guidelines. It was just, ‘Find what you think is beautiful, what you think is interesting.’ ”

A casting trip to Maine in 2006 led to her film career. There, she struck up a conversation at a high school lunch table with a 15-year-old social outlier named Billy Price, whom his classmates described as “a total weirdo.” Venditti was entranced by his unfiltered honesty and off-kilter outlook and decided to make a documentary about him. “I wanted to experience the world through his eyes,” she says. Billy the Kid was released in 2007, and, Venditti says, “I started getting calls from, like, Spike Jonze and Ryan Gosling. Everyone was kind of just like, ‘I love the way you see the world. Will you populate my world like that?’ ”

Venditti’s most serendipitous connection came via a screening of the doc at the South by Southwest festival, in Austin, Texas, where she noticed two brothers playing pool. “I thought they were so cute, and I think I tried to scout them,” she says, laughing. It turns out they were the then-unknown auteurs Josh and Benny Safdie, with whom she’s now worked on multiple films, including the duo’s Uncut Gems in 2019 and Josh’s Marty Supreme in 2025, for which Venditti was nominated for the inaugural Oscar in the category of casting.

Finding actors for a film or television show, says Venditti—who’s also known for her work on the HBO series Euphoria—is very different from casting a fashion shoot. For still photography, “you just look for a face, photograph the face, and then you get their contact info.” With a movie, “you have to get a performance out of them.” The first step, she says, is building trust with a person, which she does over the course of several in-depth, interview-esque conversations. When she’s dealing with nonactors, the idea isn’t to determine whether they can act, but “to see if there’s anything from their own life that they can bring to the role,” she says. “My whole thing is, I’m trying to create the cinema of life.” Most of all, she says, she’s looking for a compelling, magnetic singularity that might be described as “star quality,” but that she calls simply “authenticity.” The ability to spot it has been the key to her success. “The strongest tool that I have is instinct,” she says. “I can just kind of feel, This person has ‘it.’ I can literally feel it in my body.”

Hair by Junya Nakashima for Oribe at Streeters; makeup by Romy Soleimani at eArtists; fashion assistant: Sofia Prochilo; makeup assistant: Jackie Piccola.

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Butterflies and snakes and leopard spots, oh my! Dua Lipa took her eclectic love of clashing patterns to new heights this weekend, courtesy of a zoo’s worth of mixed prints. True to form, the star’s look also embraced her longstanding love of vintage design—with a distinctly 2000’s twist.

While opening a pop-up at Selfridge’s in London for her DUA by AB skincare range, Lipa stepped out in a swirling dress by Kim Shui. Hailing from Shui’s spring 2026 collection, the short-sleeved style prominently featured a high qi pao collar and a swishing calf-length hem. A plunging keyhole neckline and thigh-high slit added a sultry finish to the piece. Its most notable statement came from a green, yellow, and blue floral pattern across the bodice, spliced by a deep blue butterfly wing print on its skirt.

However, this was just the start of Lipa’s wild style statement. She paired the swirling piece with a Jacquemus clutch covered in a spotted leopard—one of her go-to prints—trimmed in frothy striped feathers. A diamond and rose gold Bulgari Serpenti cuff and matching drop earrings furthered her ensemble’s dynamic combination of animal patterns.

Lipa finished her outfit with a set of olive green Dior boots with a reptilian alligator texture, hailing from Dior’s fall 2000 collection. Originally designed by John Galliano, the vintage style included lace-up shafts, thin heels, and sharply pointed toes. Gleaming gold metal “CD” hardware atop each shoe gave the pair an ornate finish, while providing an edgy complement to the green and blue hues of Lipa’s dress.

With a wide-ranging combination of animal patterns, Lipa’s outfit had a distinct jungle theme. The combination proved effective from each piece’s individual texture, which varied from flat prints to accents and embossments. That mix brought a sense of dimension to her attire, creating multiple points of focus that were maximalist and eclectic. It also emphasized her penchant for pattern mixing—a technique she’s sported for years across her off-duty and red carpet looks.

Lipa’s zoo-worthy attire also affirmed her longstanding love of vintage—and how easily she can integrate past styles alongside new designs. The star’s previous ventures in decades-old dressing have run the gamut a ‘90s Versace wedding dress to archival pieces by Vivienne Westwood, Chanel, and more. Her latest look proved the singer will always be one to stand out from the crowd—especially with a burst of unexpected play.

Alaska’s Arctic rivers have a big, orange problem. Previously clear rivers are turning a cloudy orange color due to iron particles, and it’s more than unsightly. The particles can suffocate fish and choke insects, threatening the food web and ecosystem as a whole. 

Scientists have long pointed to previously frozen soil beginning to thaw as the potential culprit behind the contamination of rivers in northern Alaska’s remote Brooks Range, and a study recently published in the Communications Earth & Environment proves it. The research also shows two distinct ways that this thawing soil is rusting the rivers and can help scientists predict where the damage is likely to spread next. 

“You’d think if any ecosystem could hide from the effects of warming and big human footprints, it’d be this one. But it’s not so,” Tim Lyons, a study co-author and biogeochemist at the University of California, Riverside, said in a statement. “There is no safe place.”

From thawing permafrost to orange water

Permafrost is rock or soil that contains ice that has been frozen for two or more years. Alaska is warming two to three times faster than the global average, melting some of the permafrost that has been frozen for thousands of years. That thawing permafrost is already threatening the Tracy Arm Fjord, a popular destination for Alaskan cruises. 

As the ice-filled permafrost begins to thaw due to climate change, it can turn into mud that can’t support the weight of the soil or vegetation above it. This can threaten human-built infrastructure such as homes, pipes, and roads. It can also expose iron particles from rocks that turn rivers orange, a process called rusting. 

Rusting has severe ecological consequences. The fine iron particles can stay suspended in water for over 60 miles, smothering algae, disrupting insect populations, and clogging fish gills. These changes may already be affecting salmon in Alaska and Canada who rely on the gravel riverbeds for spawning and rely on algae as food during early life stages.

A top-down, fool’s gold problem

For this new study, the team looked at a wide regional view of the roughly 600-mile Brooks Range. They then zoomed in on a specific river system, followed by an even closer look at one creek. This top-down approach helped them to connect the bigger regional patterns to specific, on-the-ground processes.

“At middle, more heavily forested elevations, there isn’t much going on. But at the higher and lower elevations we could see distinctly different phenomena,” said Roman Dial, a study co-author math and biology professor emeritus at Alaska Pacific University.

At the higher elevations, the problem begins in the rocky ground containing pyrite, aka fool’s gold. Since the ground was frozen for many years, water and air didn’t affect the pyrite. Yet the rising temperatures have started to melt the ground, kicking off a process called acid rock drainage. The minerals and rocks are exposed to oxygen and water and degrade the water quality. 

“When pyrite meets water, it comes apart. It breaks down into iron and sulfur, creating sulfuric acid as well as sulfate and other toxic metals,” said Lyons. “When the iron-rich water mixes with more oxygen, the iron turns into rust-like particles that color the water and stain the bottom sediments orange.”

It’s an entirely different story at the lower elevations. The landscape is covered with wetlands that are changing shape and expanding downward as the permafrost melts. In these more soggy places, the soils are low in oxygen. So instead of breathing in oxygen, the microbes in the water (mostly bacteria) are taking in iron. 

“When we breathe, oxygen goes in and gets converted to the carbon dioxide that we exhale,” Dial said. “Similarly, microbes are consuming iron in the lowland soils and converting it into a water-soluble form that seeps into streams and results in rusting as it meets oxygenated surface water.”

Taken together, both acid rock drainage and microbes breathing in more iron help explain why orange waters are appearing across such large and remote regions across northern Alaska, closely tracking to areas where permafrost is thawing.

The direct link

The team also found a delayed effect that could help predict future contamination. During the summer, the active, top layer of soil thaws to its deepest point. It then refreezes before the winter. The iron released during one summer thaw can become trapped and then flushed into rivers the following year.

By studying long-term ground temperature data and stream chemistry, this lag can be used to anticipate increases in metal levels.

“That means we can use ground temperatures to help predict water quality in the future,” added study co-author and University of Alaska ecologist Paddy Sullivan. In 2019, Sullivan first noticed the dramatic river changes that looked “like sewage” during fieldwork in the region.

Since mines typically control the waters near them to minimize pollution, the team partnered with scientists at the Red Dog zinc mine in northwest Alaska. The scientists there have long-term temperature records from boreholes that are drilled deeply into the earth and from chemistry sampling in stream water. Linking the underground measurements with changes in the stream’s chemistry directly connected the thawing permafrost to the rusting rivers.

While this problem is difficult to contain and manage, predicting where the contamination may pop up next could help pinpoint and protect critical habitats. This forecasting is especially important for communities that depend on these waters and the fishing living there for food and cultural practices.

“There’s no fixing this once it starts,” Lyons said. “But we can give people downstream a heads up and work hard to protect the places that are still safe and less vulnerable to the rusting.”

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As a student at Central Saint Martins, in London, Fidan Novruzova expected to start her career by joining a Parisian heritage house. Her 2019 thesis collection was a portfolio for potential employers featuring retro-futuristic looks reminiscent of The Jetsons: skirts with stiffened hems that appeared permanently windblown; tops with cartoonishly sharp shoulders; and heavy knee-high “Havva” boots with a sculptural square toe. But soon after she presented it, requests from store buyers and private customers started pouring in—including one from Bella Hadid, who bought the boots over Instagram. A year after graduating—and with just a Burberry internship as professional experience—Novruzova officially launched her label.

In March, Novruzova, who is 31, presented her 11th collection, for fall 2026, at a cocktail party in her Paris showroom. She was inspired by the 20th-century Polish painter Tamara de Lempicka’s saturated palette of scarlets, emeralds, and teals, and by the way the artist projected herself onto her subjects. “Her paintings were about the affluent women and socialites of the 1920s, but they all look like her,” explains Novruzova. Lempicka’s process felt familiar to her. “You have women around you who inspire you—your muses—but at the same time, it’s still about what you want to wear yourself.” She has a penchant for jackets, and presented drop-waist trenches, tuxedo-lapel leather bombers, and boleros with stiff architectural collars. There were also riding trousers tucked into over-the-knee iterations of the Havva boot, and polo shirts with collars so exaggerated they almost resembled capes. Although her designs still have the experimental, futuristic feel of those from her college days, now “every piece is something that can be incorporated into a modern woman’s wardrobe,” she says.

Novruzova grew up in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, with Azerbaijani parents. Moldova isn’t exactly known as a high-fashion hub, but Novruzova spent much of her late teens on the Internet, where she discovered the work of Azzedine Alaïa and Yohji Yamamoto. Although she’s the only person in her family to work in a creative field, she says her mother instilled in her “the importance of dressing well,” and her heritage often figures into her work. The brand’s initial logo was a pomegranate, an emblem of prosperity across the South Caucasus, and her first collection was inspired by 1970s Azerbaijani starlets. Early on, she designed a dress made of raffia crocheted to look like wild rue, drawing on a west Asian folk belief passed down through her mother and grandmother: Burning the plant with salt while praying wards off the evil eye.

Novruzova’s designs start with materials, not sketches. She sources fabric from Italy and leather from a tannery in Istanbul, but her production remains rooted in Chisinau, which she visits often. She still works with the same family of shoemakers who produced the original Havva boot for her graduate collection; their studio is just minutes away from her parents’ house. Like many young designers, Novruzova is concerned about sustainability. For her, a sustainable brand doesn’t simply work with deadstock and upcycled fabrics, but focuses on designs that last. “The versatility of the clothes is what matters,” says Novruzova. “They should feel relevant over time.” When we met, she wore a black velvet jacket with a mandarin collar from the brand’s fall 2024 collection, as well as ballet flats from spring of that year, both of which still felt current.

Six years in, Novruzova’s brand is steadily growing. In 2024, she was a semifinalist for the LVMH Prize, making her the first Moldovan designer ever to get nominated. She’s expanding her brand’s footwear offerings, which currently consist of seasonal iterations of her Havva boot. Last year, she had her first major collaboration, working with Asics to turn its Gel-Cumulus 16 into a fashionable but still functional sneaker. (Imagine a running shoe with tassels and oversize tongues crossed with a classic men’s brogue.) Her only brief for the future: something “different,” she says. “I’m loyal to my aesthetic, but what’s important for me is to never put myself in a box.”

Hair by Tosh at Artlist Paris; Makeup by Elena Bettanello at Julian Watson; Models: Kaat Van Herbruggen at Noah Mgmt; Sabryna Oliveira at Oui Management; Yuliana Perez at Silent Models; Casting by Ashley Brokaw; On-Set Producer: Louise Akani; Photo Assistant: Matheus Agudelo; Digital Technician: Andreas Strunz; Retouching: Split Peas; Fashion Assistant: Lisa Fulchignoni; Hair Assistant: Lucile Bertrand; Makeup Assistant: Flavie Terracol.