The Return of Agyness Deyn, The Last Pre-Instagram Supermodel

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“Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes.”—Maggie Smith

Agyness Deyn’s Return

Kendall Jenner’s Brunette Locks

Agyness Deyn sits at a weird place in both fashion and internet history. She was the first supermodel who became something of a sensation online before she fully broke through to become a favorite of the stuffy fashion elite. Conversely, she might be the last supermodel to break through before the Instagram era. Deyn, originally from the suburbs of Manchester, in England, first rose to fame in the middle of the ’00s after she was spotted hanging out with the designer Henry Holland (then famous for his slogan tees). Older than most models when she got her start, her striking blonde pixie cut and cool-girl attitude took the Internet by storm. She’d pop up in photo galleries from Misshapes parties or on Last Night’s Party and became an occasional obsession of blogs like Gawker and Hipster Runoff. Eventually she landed on a 2007 American Vogue cover with other up-and-comers that proclaimed them “The World’s Next Top Models.” She fronted campaigns for everyone from Dior to Doc Martens, and became something of a face of hipster culture. Just as suddenly as she reached the top of the fashion world, though, she pulled back, before officially retiring from fashion in 2012. Since then, she’s gotten married, had a child, and carved out a respectable acting career (she fronted the BBC drama Hard Sun, and appeared in the film Her Smell alongside Elisabeth Moss). She’s only occasionally dabbled in fashion since, and hasn’t even bothered to join Instagram, despite having once been an Internet princess. So when she appeared on a runway for the first time in four years at Burberry, it might have been the highlight of the just-concluded London Fashion Week for people of a certain age. There’s no word yet on if it was just a quick return or if we might be seeing more of Deyn in the future. Of course, there was lots more to see at LFW in general. Simone Rocha put on a dreamy show that channeled the Irish countryside, Erdem went romantic beekeeper, and Christopher Kane explored the idea of the “ecosexual.” Of course, the best street style outside the shows was equally interesting. Oh, and Kendall Jenner went blonde.

Chloe Fineman and Bowen Yang

Shane Gillis

Late last week, Saturday Night Live announced three new cast members slated to join the show for its 45th season. While they’re obviously not household names, two were pretty familiar to online comedy fans. Chloe Fineman came up in traditional improv institutions the Groundlings and the Upright Citizens Brigade, she’s amassed quite a following for her eerily spot-on impressions of everyone from Meryl Streep to Jennifer Lawrence. Meanwhile, Bowen Yang, previously a writer for the show, has gone viral with his spot-on lip-sync videos, and he cohosts the popular podcast Las Culturistas. The third name? Well, at first Shane Gillis just seemed like some random guy who does stand-up without many credits outside of that world. That is, until a clip emerged of Gillis on a podcast last summer making dumb comments about Chinese restaurants while casually using ethnic slurs. Other misogynistic and homophobic clips also surfaced, and, in a rare move, SNL decided to rescind his invitation to join the cast. Notably, Variety reported that the show’s producer, Lorne Michaels, had made a point of trying to cast a new actor over the summer who would hold explicit appeal to conservative audiences, to try to mitigate the show’s perceived liberal leanings. Ironically, this is almost exactly the storyline of an episode of 30 Rock where Alec Baldwin’s character, Jack Donaghy, tries to force Tina Fey’s Liz Lemon to hire a comedian from “real America” for the sketch show TGS, only for that to backfire when his preferred standup comedian candidate’s puppet ends up being a misogynist. Of course, the whole saga has led to renewed discussion about cancel culture, but we’re not entirely convinced that someone facing consequences for past racist comments is actually anything altogether new or particularly controversial.

Savage x Fenty Streaming

Victoria’s Secret Broadcasting

Don’t fear the Downton Abbey movie. Apparently it gives longtime fans just about everything that they want (well, except for Lily James, one of the most notable castmates to sit it out). Four years after the series ended, the film finds the Crawleys anticipating an official visit from the king and queen themselves. However, not only does the household staff not quite gel with their royal counterparts, there’s an assassin afoot as well. It’s expected to do relatively well at the box office, and there’s already talk of a sequel. Elsewhere, Brad Pitt goes to space in Ad Astra as an astronaut in search of his missing father. Buzz has been good for the title since its debut at the Venice Film Festival, particularly for its visuals, exploration of the parent-child bond, and Pitt’s performance. Finally, 73-year-old Sylvester Stallone steps back into his Rambo tank top for the first time in 11 years for Rambo: Final Blood. Reviews aren’t out yet, but despite the “Final” in the title, Stallone has already confirmed he’s open to doing another one if it’s a success.

Ryan Murphy may have his new deal at Netflix, but American Horror Story persists at his old home, FX. The ninth series, 1984 (which premiered last night) takes its inspiration from ’80s slasher flicks, so expect lots of bad blowouts and aerobics jokes. However, there’s a sense that a certain era of the show has ended. For the first time ever, Evan Peters will not be involved in this series, and Sarah Paulson is said to have only a very small part. Former mainstays like Jessica Lange and Kathy Bates have long since moved on. While Emma Roberts has stuck around, she mostly finds herself with more recent additions to the franchise like Cody Fern and Billie Lourd, or complete newcomers like Angelica Ross and Gus Kentworthy. Of course, we’ll still watch the first few episodes until the whole thing takes one too many plot turns for us to bother keeping up, as is customary at this point. Elsewhere, BET premieres an update of First Wives Club on Thursday, but otherwise TV this week is dominated by special events. Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty fashion show streams on Amazon Prime on Friday and will leave you saying “Victoria’s Secret who?” Here’s everything you can expect from the lingerie spectacle. Finally, the Emmys get handed out on Sunday night on Fox.

Cameron Dallas

@CameronDallas

The influencer takeover of New York Fashion Week continued, with Instagram idol Cameron Dallas walking shows for both Christian Cowan and the Blonds. For more of this fashion month’s most surprising models, click here.