The Faces: Our heroes and heroines of the month

An actress who beguiles with her beauty and yet lets plenty of blood flow, a musician with a promising tech start-up, an author who humorously settles accounts with the beauty world: Once again, we have collected the coolest heroes and heroines of today.

Grace Wales Bonner

Frontrunner
9.58 seconds is the world record in the 100-meter dash. The new sneaker collections from Adidas x Wales Bonner sell out just as quickly. A Samba model is also planned for next spring, the sequin embellishment of which made eyes sparkle at Paris Fashion Week. But it’s not just commercially that the Englishwoman is on a roll. She researches Pan-African art and history for her label’s creations. Her research is so thorough that she recently curated an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Reece Feldman

Curls on Film
Reece Feldman used to be an errand boy on film sets and brought the camera assistant fresh coffee. Today, the 26-year-old has the big production studios chasing after him because he runs the most powerful TikTok account in Hollywood. On it, he interviews stars on the red carpet, accompanies Christopher Nolan to the Oscars and competes with Jenna Ortega. If you want to make new films appealing to Gen Z, you let Reece cook and get virality served up. And because he is so smartly dressed, brands like Gucci are now knocking on his door.

Sable Yong

Vanity flair
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In the same eye is a toxic thorn of unattainable ideals, photo filters and snake oil in skin cream cans. There’s a lot wrong with the beauty world, where symmetry is supposedly key. Author Sable Yong doesn’t have a scalpel to cut out these social diseases. But she does have a sharp pen to name them. Her best essays have now been published in the book “Die Hot with a Vengeance”. A must-read to stop looking so self-critically in the mirror.

Jannis Niewöhner

Fabulous
Jannis Niewöhner warms up to roles that others don’t want to burn their fingers on. In films such as “Je suis Karl” and “Stella”, he paints personified evil not in black, but in nuanced shades of gray. But when it comes to taking a clear stance against right-wing agitators in real life off screen, the up-and-coming star is one of the loudest celebrity voices in Germany. At least as heroic: his next role as the title character in the major fantasy production “Hagen – Im Tal der Nibelungen”.

Audrey Diwan

Uh là là
Half a century before people were typing “ethically non-monogamous” into their dating profiles, Emmanuelle and her husband were suggesting to couples after dinner that they should get undressed for group sex. The “Emmanuelle” film series conquered the mainstream in the 70s and is still considered France’s main erotic export today. To mark its 50th anniversary, the country’s best female director takes on the character. Audrey Diwan’s interpretation promises feminist sensitivity, bittersweet melancholy and flawless aesthetics.

Nigel Xavier

Jeans genius
As the Wizard of Denim, Nigel Xavier conjured himself up as the winner of the reality show “Next in Fashion” last year and enchanted jury members Gigi Hadid and Alexa Chung, among others. In his hands, the blue fabric becomes patchwork chic style gold. But the newcomer from Atlanta doesn’t lose the thread with other materials either. The designer upcycles old knitted blankets into gaudy ponchos and jackets. This not only adds a splash of color in winter, but also makes us feel as snuggled up in a blizzard as we would on grandma’s couch.

Elyanna

1001 Nights Out
She will never be the most famous person born in Nazareth. But Eylanna is on the verge of becoming the next global pop star. In the Arab music world, the Palestinian-Chilean singer is already a sensation. And since her collaboration with Coldplay, the sesame has also opened up for Western audiences. Elyanna played her first Arabic-language concert at Coachella. Her music swirls folklore, EDM and jazz into a storm of emotion that is understood not through language, but with the heart.

Willie Nelson

Take Me Home
The last outlaw rides off into the sunset. When Willie Nelson was smoking pot on the roof of the White House, Jimmy Carter was still president. Since then, the country icon has released over 150 studio albums. Now his new one is out – and it sounds like a farewell. In “Last Leaf on the Tree”, the 91-year-old plays the song of death. Fearless, poetic and still curious about the next big adventure. The biggest and last is now ahead of him. But he has made ample provision for a comforting soundtrack in a world without Willie Nelson.

Sean Evans

Saucy
In his interviews, Sean Evans makes the biggest stars cry. Not because he elicits painful confessions from them. Instead, Evans serves his guests chicken wings on the YouTube talk show “Hot Ones”, which get hotter with every question. Who does this to themselves? Scarlett Johansson, Lewis Hamilton, Margot Robbie and Chris Hemsworth, among others. But the audience of millions not only appreciates the unusual setting, but also Sean’s well-founded questions and friendly manner. No wonder Netflix has already approached him with a deal.

Margaret Qualley

Dark Matters
A face to remember? No, because you’re guaranteed not to forget it. Margaret Qualley took her shoes off for Quentin Tarantino and turned Brad Pitt’s head in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”. Since then, the actress has shone in some of the most exciting and provocative films from that city. Often as a seductress who lures people to their doom. In the body horror satire “The Substance”, she emerges from Demi Moore’s lifeless body as the personification of eternal youth. So terribly beautiful that we don’t want to look away.

Honey Balenciaga

Ballroom Glitz
She (almost) stole the show from Beyoncé. Now Honey Balenciaga dances to her own beat. As The Voguing Diva, the dancer was part of Queen Bey’s court and a star attraction on the Renaissance World Tour. But the world’s biggest stages are not enough to carry Honey’s talents. She models for Coach and Nike, will soon be launching her own line of high heels and has reportedly filmed a reality show for Netflix. And all this at just 23 years old. It was at that age that we first learned how to operate a tumble dryer.

Nick Frosst

Singer-promptwriter
The Good Kid are an okay indie rock band that perform at festivals like Lollapalooza. But in a time slot when people first crawl out of the tent and wonder who this singing slag in the Lord of the Rings shirt is. Well, Nick Frosst is not only the frontman of The Good Kid, he also co-founded a tech start-up that is worth 5.5 billion dollars. Cohere is seen as an alternative to OpenAI and could become the next big thing on the market – provided Frosst doesn’t have to tour the community centers of North America.

More heroes, please: Here ‘s another batch of great people we adore.