Petra Collins Dreams of Sleepovers With Rihanna

Although Petra Collins is planning to move on from the lives and concerns of teenagers — her longstanding favorite subject — they must have rubbed off, like glitter, on the 23-year-old Canadian photographer and artist. Even in the sumptuous bed in her hotel suite, with a room service kitchen at her beck and call, she goes for a big bowl of Cheerios (the box of Sour Patch Kids is a la carte). Also, excuse her, but she really, really needs to get to the end of her Instagram feed before bedtime. And forget thick robes or luxe pajamas — a “giant disgusting t-shirt” is her boudoir wardrobe of choice.

As she paints her toes over a marble notebook, what has always made Collins such a charming artist and subject — she’s starring in the current Gucci campaign — is right there on the surface: her complete ease of passage no matter where she goes, whether it’s her work for Rookie (where she got her start) or her 2015 video portrait of a New Orleans community for Nowness. In fact, film has become a fertile new ground for Collins: see her recent short with Lil Yachty, Keep Sailing, or her tribute to Georgia O’Keefe for the Tate Modern, both of which are fun, crafty, and utterly comfortable in their very different milieus.

So while Collins says she really wants to get into bed with Rihanna — don’t we all — we don’t mind getting into bed with her, not one bit. (We’ll even bring an extra box of Cheerios, that one looks empty.) In fact, if we could build Collins her dream bedroom — basically, just one giant, sunken, room-sized bed — we would. And then we’d crawl right under the covers.