Trailblazing Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o talks frankly to the award-winning global fashion magazine PORTER about navigating her own destiny and driving change in Hollywood; how she owes much of her success to her mother – most notably last year when Nyong’o shared her own experience of sexual harassment with Harvey Weinstein, it was her mother who she looked to for guidance; and why she is redressing beauty standards:
I have an opportunity to show other dark, kinky-haired people, and particularly our children, that they are beautiful just the way they are.
Nyong’o, who appears on the cover of PORTER’s Fall issue (on sale August 10), is photographed by acclaimed photographer Mario Sorrenti and styled by Cathy Kasterine. In Sorrenti’s second cover shoot for PORTER, the actresses’ natural beauty and grace is captured in a series of bold silhouettes wearing pieces from the forthcoming FW18 Collections.
Nyong’o reflects on change in Hollywood over the past year: including the critical and financial success of Marvel’s Black Panther; and the #MeToo and Time’s Up initiatives. Following her revelation about being sexually harassed by Harvey Weinstein, Nyong’o tells PORTER that she attributes finding the strength to speak up from her mother, who supported her in coming forward to share her story:
I come from a very patriarchal world, but not within my family. My dad listened to my mom. My mom held her own. There was never a sense of her deflecting from my father. She had the power to say no to things, and I saw her hold that power.
Lupita Nyong’o
Lupita Nyong’o is someone I have long admired – she has always insisted on writing her own narrative and is all the more desirable for it. Therefore, I am incredibly honored to have her as our cover star for the Desire issue. For all the
Negative connotations that may be attached to the word ‘desire’, there remains a powerful life-force of female sensuality which is something to be celebrated and not denied – Lupita captures this perfectly.
PORTER’s Editor-in-Chief Lucy Yeomans says.
The theme continues throughout the issue, as Katy England examines the enduring allure of her close friend, Kate Moss, ahead of the release of new book Kate – a series of intimate and previously unpublished portraits of the young Moss shot by Mario Sorrenti. “Kate is clear about her boundaries. She will only go as far as she wants to, and if something detracts from the overall portrait of beauty, she will be the first to say,” says England. Sorrenti tells PORTER “Kate was an amazing, vibrant young girl, full of character and confidence. Everyone who came across her fell in love with her instantly”.
Fashion force Donatella Versace talks about creating clothes that empower women to feel, act and be as fabulous as they look. Desirability, she says, is our most powerful weapon:
I want to make women feel they are never too shy to say what they think. That is what we have always stood for.
Donatella Versace
PORTER also speaks to Hollywood’s most in-demand divorce lawyer, Laura Wasser (her clients include Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp, Heidi Klum, and Gwen Stefani) about what fires her up, why she still believes in a happy endings and what women should really be asking, and armoring themselves with as they enter into marriage today: “We’re all raised to think about getting the ring, having this beautiful day, the honeymoon, getting pregnant. It’s absurd.”
And, far from your average boy-meets-girl tale – from waiting a year before making the first move with the handsome osteopath treating her son, to the fairy-tale proposal, and now a baby-on-the-way – supermodel Arizona Muse tells PORTER her extraordinary story of modern romance.
