The New Royals

Julianne Moore on the cover of W Magazine’s October 2015 issue.

Allison Williams on the cover of W Magazine’s October 2015 issue.

Adam Driver on the cover of W Magazine’s October 2015 issue.

Claire Danes on the cover of W Magazine’s October 2015 issue.

Greta Gerwig on the cover of W Magazine’s October 2015 issue.

Jourdan Dunn on the cover of W Magazine’s October 2015 issue.

Allison Williams New Royalty: Television “I might be the one who has the most sex on Girls. I’m like an old pro now. These actors come on the show and they’ve never had sex scenes, and I’m like, ‘I’ll take care of you, honey. I’ll treat you right.’ It’s weirdly easy at this point: Maybe I should be in 24-hour therapy, working on what real love is and what simulated love is.”

Claire Danes Classic Royalty: Television “My parents had no concern about my psychic well-being, and they subjected me to every- and anything in the culture. When I was a teenager, I went to the premiere of Showgirls with my mother. It doesn’t get more inappropriate than that, but I survived. I do think there’s something to be said for letting kids decide what they’re ready for and what they aren’t.”

Iman Classic Royalty: Modeling “When I came to the United States, everyone thought I was Somali royalty. They said, ‘She’s a princess,’ and all that. On my second day here, I met Diana Vreeland, and she looked at my earlobes. ‘I’ve never seen such small earlobes,’ she said. ‘Those are the sign of royalty.’ That stuck with me.”

Jourdan Dunn New Royalty: Modeling “I was signed as a model when I was 14, and I didn’t know how to walk in heels. My mom bought me these kind of stripper heels and said, ‘If you can walk in these, you can walk in anything.’ 
I practiced in my house while doing 
the dishes so I’d learn to be stable, 
but, truthfully, I never really learned.”

Benicio Del Toro Classic Royalty: Film “Winning an Oscar is almost like a memory before it happens. It’s like real time moving really, really fast. It’s a great honor, but it’s a bizarre experience. It’s sort of like a beautiful sweater that itches a little bit.”

Adam Driver New Royalty: Film “I loved being in the Marine Corps. I was there for a little over two years, and I wanted to stay longer, but I got injured. So I came to New York and auditioned for Juilliard. It was very hard to explain my time at Juilliard to my Marine buddies: ‘Yeah, I wear pajamas all the time, and we give birth to ourselves.’ It was hard to justify what we do as actors.”

Indre Rockefeller New Royalty: Society “I was a professional ballet dancer before I worked in fashion, and I 
always remember the moment that 
the costumes would come out and we would be transformed. I grew up with 
costume ateliers being the most magical places. I would get swept up in the romance of that make-believe world.”

Lynn Wyatt Classic Royalty: Society “My favorite word is ‘young.’ I think 
you have to trick the body into doing different things, otherwise it ages. So 
I took tae kwon do and became a black 
belt first degree when I was 60. When 
they put the belt around me, I burst into tears. It was the hardest test I’ve ever taken. My next challenge is boxing.”

Greta Gerwig New Royalty: Independent Film “When I was young, I was interested in ballet, so royalty to me was Gelsey Kirkland and Mikhail Baryshnikov in The Nutcracker. I taped it off the television and watched it over and over. Baryshnikov would lift her and throw her in the air, and it looked like she was going to float away. Gelsey had that big ’70s eye makeup, and it turned out that she was really sick and had a cocaine addiction. But I didn’t know that then. I just thought she was beautiful.”

Julianne Moore Classic Royalty: Independent Film “To me, Tom Ford is royalty. I met him when I was nominated for an Oscar. I’d just had my son, Cal, and I had really big boobs and I didn’t feel like myself. Tom made me a beautiful dress, but I didn’t wear it because I felt like my boobs were too big. He didn’t care, and we’ve been friends ever since.”

Anna Sui Classic Royalty: Fashion “Fashion royalty is Anita Pallenberg 
and Keith Richards. Every collection I do, no matter if it’s folkloric or preppy, I’m always thinking, Is this cool enough 
for Keith and Anita? Whenever I have spare time, I search the Internet for new pictures of them. Recently, I saw a 
photo taken in the ’70s in a nightclub in 
Rome, and she had on an outfit I’d never 
seen before. It was fantastic. That one 
outfit could inspire an entire season.”

Shayne Oliver New Royalty: Fashion “Design-wise, I don’t have any boundaries when it comes to gender. My friends wear bras—and they’re men. Men’s wear is not glamorous, and women’s wear is, so why not mix the two together? When men wear my clothes, they say, ‘I can rock a dress and still feel handsome.’ Once you get that vibe going, the style just falls into place naturally.”

Maika Monroe New Royalty: Horror “In It Follows, I play a girl who has a demon that she transfers during 
sex. The movie has wreaked havoc 
on my romantic life. No boys have talked to me since. Now when I start 
dating someone, I tell them, ‘You don’t need to see that movie. It’s fine.’ ”

Jamie Lee Curtis Classic Royalty: Horror “I auditioned for Halloween many times in 
a very small office with John Carpenter. I’m sure having the daughter of Janet Leigh, the star of Psycho, as the lead brought some attention to the film. Actually, I’ve never seen Psycho all the way through. I am probably the worst person to watch anything scary with—I require knowing everything that’s about to happen, and when it’s going to happen. I scare easily.”

Mary J. Blige Classic Royalty: Music “The first thing I recorded was an audition tape made in a karaoke booth at the Galleria mall, in Westchester. I sang ‘Caught Up in the Rapture,’ the Anita Baker hit. I wasn’t nervous; I had sung that song in front of the mirror over and over. I sent the tape to only one person: Andre Harrell at Uptown Records. He heard it, came to my house in Yonkers, and said he wanted to make me a star.”

Jillian Hervey New Royalty: Music “The first record I bought with my own money was Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. I listened to it every day, and I would sing it in the shower. No one ever told me I should be a singer. I knew I loved singing, but it was my secret for a long time. For years, I stuck to the shower.”