Who’s new on the pop throne and ruling the music world, who’s reigning from the director’s chair and who’s the new king of Paris Fashion Week? Find out in our latest heroines and heroes of the month.
Lorde
Royal with ease
The sceptre has officially been handed over. During her audience at Coachella, Charli XCX, regent of Brat Summer 2024, announced that Lorde will take over the pop throne for the coming months. It’s not the first time for the New Zealander, who has produced some of the genre’s most artistic bangers. And yet her new album “Virgin” feels like a new start. Also because a lot has happened in the last few months in Lorde’s self-discovery. There’s just one thing she didn’t have to search for long: The talent for songs that go straight to the heart and brain.
The only lordship we bow down to.
Luke Edward Hall
Paint & Pleasure
His brushstrokes are as romantic as two entwined swan necks. That’s why MSGM asked for Luke Edward Hall’s splashes of watercolor for the current spring/summer collection. The artist lives and works in a secluded country house in England, but his paintings distil the feeling of a Paris or Italian summer long gone. Luke’s knack for interior design, which he used to redesign the Amaru restaurant at the Kulm Hotel in St. Moritz and turn it into a feast for the eyes, also awakens our wanderlust.
A man with excellent taste.
Mei Pang
Color Revelation
Sometimes you have to give up a career goal in order to discover your true talent: As an art student, Mei Pang did not accomplish any memorable works on canvas, as she herself admits. But since she began to live out her creativity on her own skin, the Malaysian has inspired an audience of millions on Instagram and TikTok. Her make-up tutorials are just as captivating as the elaborate image creations with which Mei transforms her visage into a gallery and models for Jean Paul Gaultier and Savage X Fenty, among others.
Mei Pang doesn’t need to lay it on thick.
Willy Chavarria
Mex to the Max
When the American president proclaimed “Build that wall!”, Willy Chavarria’s motto was: Dig that underground. In the meantime, the Mexican-born designer from the USA has dug his way into Europe and celebrated the Paris Fashion Week debut to mark the tenth anniversary of his fashion label. Chavarria has thus finally risen to become one of the hottest names on the scene. With a clear political stance, Chicano-inspired designs and the best moustache in the business (sorry, Haider Ackermann), Big Willy has been rushing from success to success ever since.
Superb subversive instead of mucho macho.
Julia Ducournau
Haute Horreur
When the movie theater seat becomes a pincushion, Julia Ducournau sits in the director’s chair. The French filmmaker’s works are provocative and uncomfortable. She combines interpersonal dramas with body horror, hitting the sore spots with millimeter precision. In 2021, “Titane” made the audience in Cannes turn pale and still won the Palme d’Or. The festival snobs also reacted to Doucournau’s new film “Alpha” as if blood pudding had been thrown into a confectionery. But those who get involved will experience the birth of a cult classic.
Back in action: Julia Ducournau in Cannes.
Alexander Skarsgård
Stockholm Cathedral
While the world searches for a new James Bond, we are at the feet of our own James Bondage. Alexander Skarsgård has earned this name with his role in “Pillion” as honestly as naughtily. The BDSM film (the BDSM stands for “Brilliant Drama, Skarsgård’s Magnificent!”, by the way) not only made heads turn in Cannes, because the Swede transformed the red carpet into an open-air leather dungeon with his wicked gala looks. Equally captivating: his main character in the current streaming hit “Murderbot”.
Tom of Finland is followed by Alex from Sweden.
Patrick Wolf
Lost and Found
Patrick Wolf has never been a herd animal. When the music business wanted to turn the former child prodigy into a pop star, he waved it off and remained a glittering insider tip. But the enigmatic Englishman could have done without being as secret as he has been for the past 13 years. Various strokes of fate hurled Patrick completely out of the public eye. Fans were on the verge of printing his photo on milk cartons to search for him. But now all wounds have been licked and the new album “Crying the Neck” is a triumphant return.
His career is far from over.
Mary Beth Barone
CEO of LOL
Mary Beth Barone has a good laugh. Because we have it with her too. The laugh, that is. As a comedian, the American is convincing in all formats: On the stand-up stages of her sold-out tour as well as in the new Amazon Prime series “Overcompensating” and as a podcaster with “Ride” alongside her bestie and creative partner Benito Skinner. Relationships, politics and everything else that keeps us desperately awake at night is charmingly pulled through the cocoa by Mary Beth. And, as we all know, it’s supposed to help you fall asleep.
Hollywood’s next big laughing stock. And on purpose.
Thomas J. Price
Titans of now
A French politician recently demanded the Statue of Liberty back from the USA. Because under the current government it is hanging around in front of New York as credibly as smelling trees at a slaughterhouse window. A replacement would already be there. A sculpture by Thomas J. Price is currently causing a stir in Times Square. With his huge bronze depictions of mostly black people in everyday clothes, the Englishman transforms the ordinary into a spectacle, the oppressed into the superhuman. Silent giants for a world with too much noise.
His art is a matter of the mind.
Bianca Bustamante
Fast Learner
Feet of lead, neck of steel, eyes on gold: Bianca Bustamante has what it takes to only have to see the competition in the rear-view mirror in motorsport. She hit the gas for the first time in a go-kart at the age of five – and the pace has been increasing ever since. Last year, the McLaren racing team was the first woman to include the Filipina in its Driver Development Program. Now she is in pole position for a global career in the talent factory GB3 Championship and is one of the stars of the Netflix documentary series “F1 The Academy”. Buckle up, please!
A rare moment when Bianca is in no hurry.
Heroines and heroes without end: continue here, for example.
