Sabrina Carpenter is Vogue’s March Cover Star

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Run-Through with Vogue Episode: Sabrina Carpenter is Vogue’s March Cover Star
Release Date: February 13, 2025

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1. Introduction and Hosts’ Personal Anecdotes

The episode kicks off with co-hosts Chloe Mel and Chen Minati Choma sharing personal experiences, setting a relatable and engaging tone. Chloe recounts a humorous incident at Daily Provisions, where a fan captured her awaiting her meal, reminding them both of the joy of unexpected fan interactions (00:33).

2. Spotlight on Sabrina Carpenter’s Vogue March Cover

Chloe introduces the main topic: Sabrina Carpenter gracing the cover of American Vogue’s March issue. She highlights the excitement surrounding Sabrina’s feature and her collaboration with Abby Aguirre, the cover story writer who provided an insightful analysis of Sabrina’s rise to stardom (01:19).

• Chome's Enthusiasm: Chen expresses delight over the global buzz generated by the cover, mentioning discussions from high-profile events and among fashion elites, including conversations with Philip Treacy and praise from designers like Alessandro Michele (02:00).

• Classic Bombshell Aesthetic: Both hosts share their appreciation for the classic bombshell style of the cover, emphasizing its timeless appeal and Sabrina’s embodiment of old Hollywood glamour combined with modern sensibilities (02:43).

3. Behind-the-Scenes Insights with Abby Aguirre

The conversation deepens as Abby Aguirre joins the discussion, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Sabrina’s cover story.

• Preparation Process: Abby details her extensive preparation, including immersing herself in Sabrina’s music and attending her San Diego show. She praises Sabrina's authenticity and comfort, noting her ability to control the narrative around her persona (18:58).

• Sabrina’s Performance Analysis: Abby breaks down Sabrina’s Grammys performance, highlighting its layered references to iconic figures like Leonard Cohen and Shirley MacLaine. She appreciates Sabrina’s ability to blend modern and timeless elements seamlessly (24:26).

• Personal Interactions: Taylor Antrim shares a personal anecdote about discovering the explicit nature of Sabrina’s lyrics, illustrating the depth and complexity of Sabrina’s artistry (20:27).

4. Vogue March Issue Overview

Taylor Antrim provides an overview of the Vogue March issue, emphasizing its significance as the second-largest issue of the year, following the September edition.

• Designer Profiles: The issue features in-depth profiles of influential designers like Alessandro Michele, Sarah Burton at Givenchy, and Heder Ackerman at Tom Ford, capturing the dynamic shifts within the fashion industry (34:06).

• Cultural Features: Additional highlights include profiles of artist Lorna Simpson and author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, showcasing Vogue’s commitment to diverse and impactful storytelling (37:14).

5. Current Fashion Trends and Events

The hosts shift focus to ongoing fashion events, particularly New York Fashion Week. They discuss emerging trends, such as the resurgence of flare and bootcut jeans, sparked by high-profile performances like Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show. This segment underscores the significant influence of public figures in shaping fashion trends (05:13; 08:52).

6. Personal Plans and Pop Culture Commentary

Chloe and Chen share their personal plans for upcoming events, including Chloe’s attendance at Saturday Night Live’s 50th Anniversary and Chen’s preparations for the BAFTAs. They also touch upon recent pop culture moments, reflecting on the intersection of fashion, music, and media (10:38; 14:28).

7. Valentine's Day Reflections

The hosts discuss their varied takes on Valentine's Day, with Chen sharing a heartfelt story about her partner's thoughtful gesture, reinforcing the theme of personal connections amidst their busy schedules (10:38; 10:56).

8. Conclusion and Upcoming Collaborations

As the episode wraps up, Chloe and Chen hint at upcoming collaborations and projects, including partnering with GQ and hosting events with notable personalities like Adam Badawi, Cynthia Erivo, Adrien Brody, and Harry Stanford. They express excitement for future episodes and continued coverage of influential figures in the fashion and entertainment industries (15:26; 36:17).

Notable Quotes:

• Chloe Mel (02:43): “I'm such a sucker for an old school bombshell Vogue cover. It delivers everything you want it to, visually.”

• Taylor Antrim (17:14): “When someone gets their first Vogue cover, it’s like a certain kind of charge that comes along with it.”

• Abby Aguirre (24:26): “She is very open. You can tell she’s very much making the call on what to share and what not to share.”

• Chloe Mel (32:13): “This cover shoot specifically seems to reference old Hollywood glamour and bombshell blondes in a fresh, unexpected way.”

Conclusion

This episode of The Run-Through with Vogue offers an in-depth exploration of Sabrina Carpenter’s Vogue March cover, blending personal anecdotes with professional insights. The hosts and guest Abby Aguirre provide a comprehensive look at the intersection of celebrity, fashion, and media, making it a must-listen for fashion enthusiasts and Vogue readers alike.

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Timestamp Reference Key:

• <a id="timestamp-0033"></a>[00:33]
• <a id="timestamp-0119"></a>[01:19]
• <a id="timestamp-0200"></a>[02:00]
• <a id="timestamp-0243"></a>[02:43]
• <a id="timestamp-1858"></a>[18:58]
• <a id="timestamp-2426"></a>[24:26]
• <a id="timestamp-2027"></a>[20:27]
• <a id="timestamp-3406"></a>[34:06]
• <a id="timestamp-3714"></a>[37:14]
• <a id="timestamp-0513"></a>[05:13]
• <a id="timestamp-0852"></a>[08:52]
• <a id="timestamp-1038"></a>[10:38]
• <a id="timestamp-1428"></a>[14:28]
• <a id="timestamp-1056"></a>[10:56]
• <a id="timestamp-1526"></a>[15:26]
• <a id="timestamp-3617"></a>[36:17]
• <a id="timestamp-3213"></a>[32:13]

Transcript

[Chen Minati Choma]

This episode of the Run through is brought to you by eBay. EBay. It's the place to fall in love with new pre loved vintage and rare fashion over and over again. Your favorite designers expertly authenticated. Yeah, ebay. Things people love.

[Chloe Mel]

Welcome to the Run Through. I'm Chloe Mel.

[Chen Minati Choma]

And I'm Chen Minati Choma.

[Chloe Mel]

I had such a fun experience yesterday. Daily Provisions just opened at Brookfield and I love Daily Provisions. And I went to get lunch there, but they had just opened, so it took a very long time to get my grilled cheese and tomato soup. And I grumpily was going back and forth to see if it was ready and this cute young woman filmed me looking grumpy, waiting for my food and said, so excited. Huge fan of Choma and Chloe on the run through.

[Chen Minati Choma]

No way.

[Chloe Mel]

And posted it. It was a good reminder to not look grumpy in public. But I was very touched and I responded to her DM and I said, we love to hear. Thank you so much. She goes, I love you and Choma. I love hearing you guys catch up. So there we go.

[Chen Minati Choma]

Fans in the wild. We love that.

[Chloe Mel]

We love fans in the wild. We have a very fun conversation today. Sabrina Carpenter, as I hope everyone knows, is American Vogue's March cover star and deputy editor Taylor Antrim. And I got to talk to our cover story writer, the brave and brilliant Abby Aguirre, who Choma also loves. She wrote such a delightful, almost academic assessment and take on the phenomenon of Sabrina Carpenter's stardom and got to spend time with her backstage at her show in San Diego.

[Chen Minati Choma]

I mean, everybody is talking about this cover. I was. Last night we did another conversation at the lightroom in London with Pierre Paolo, formerly of Valentino and now waiting to be wedded to another brand. But you know, one of our favorites, free agent. He was very coy, but yeah, he. And he had. He's very good friends with Philip Treacy. He's a very legendary milliner here in the uk And Philip was talking nonstop. The whole table was buzzing about Sabrina Carpenter and this cover and this wonderful Steven Meisel cover that was starred by IB Kamara. Yeah, it's making waves around the world, Chloe. We are.

[Chloe Mel]

We are waves around the world. We love to hear it.

[Chen Minati Choma]

Yeah, I just love that classic bombshell. Like, me too.

[Chloe Mel]

That's what I said. I'm such a sucker for an old school bombshell Vogue cover. And then last night we had a little party to celebrate and Sabrina actually got off a flight and changed into her laced up, corseted Dress and came to the new bar in the East Village. Monsieur. And she and Anna Wintour greeted everyone and gave a really cute speech. Taylor says this later in our interview, and I think it's true that there is this frison of excitement and thrill around a first Vogue. Like a starlet who's on. On the rise and has really made it their first Vogue cover. Is this exciting moment to be a part of.

[Chen Minati Choma]

Yeah, it really is. It's so special. And I think you feel it. You feel it on the Internet. You sort of feel that sort of tingle of excitement that people are like, oh, right, okay. This is like the big moment in Vogue. Yeah. Which is. It's so. It's so fun to see someone at that moment in their career.

[Chloe Mel]

There were a lot of actors and other stylists, celebs, photographers. Tyler Mitchell was there, a lot of designers. Emily Bode, who's very pregnant and had just come from the gq. Bodie Bowl. Morgan Specter and Rebecca Hall. New York's most attractive couple. Chloe Feynman.

[Chen Minati Choma]

And they're so nice. Oh, my God, I love Rebecca.

[Chloe Mel]

And, yeah, the party was great because, for one thing, they obviously had espresso martinis in an homage of Sabrina's signature track. Although I joked to the events ladies that they should have made it ristretto martinis, since ristretto is like a short espresso and they're like, too much. Go away.

[Chen Minati Choma]

Tell me more about New York Fashion Week. I mean, I'm sort of like, I'm seeing lots of snowy street style images. I'm seeing pictures from Thom Brown.

[Chloe Mel]

Are you feeling fomo or are you feeling what's. What's relief over having missed out? Romo.

[Abby Aguirre]

Romo.

[Chen Minati Choma]

I'm the queen of Romo.

[Chloe Mel]

Joma's the queen of Romo.

[Chen Minati Choma]

I. I used to be the. I made the switch. I used to be queen of fomo, but now I'm Romo. No, I. I feel fomo. I. I love New York Fashion Week. There's so many designers I'm fond of and I love. Yeah. And I love that cab drivers know that. It's. It's like, it's New York Fashion Week. Oh, what's happening? People are.

[Chloe Mel]

I know. They always want to know what's happening. I thought Fashion Week was actually lovely because it was a little more. Felt a bit more low key than in the past. It didn't feel quite as the. The wattage wasn't as high, which I thought was kind of nice. I still felt like there were a lot of the presentations of fashion funders I thought were really strong, and that's always nice to see. People loved Zankov's playful take on sweater dressing and sweater layering. Dima really branched out into new silhouettes.

[Chen Minati Choma]

Yeah, they're very good friends, aren' those two?

[Chloe Mel]

Yeah, I think so. I really liked the Tori show. I thought there were a lot of things that were sort of cheeky but also wearable. What else? People loved Eccaus Lotta and felt like their whole thing was, we're like anti mood boards. This is what real dressing is.

[Chen Minati Choma]

Yeah. One of my colleagues was talking about that on the team here, about how they loved the air Castle art show. I mean, we were trying to sort of nail what the big viral moments were or what the. What the thing that got people talking and I. Or got people smiling in this case, which I thought was like Kate Moss and Christy Turlington.

[Chloe Mel]

Yes. The Calvin of it all.

[Chen Minati Choma]

Big debut.

[Chloe Mel]

No big debut. And big front row. Very glamorous. That definitely felt like the star. Splashiest show of the week and the most anticipated. You know, Nicole had a great conversation with Veronica on Tuesday's show, and we had a really fun lifting the veil behind the scenes. Front row, hot take on all the shows. Our intrepid producers trek through the snow, following our editors around to different shows. And you should listen to Wednesday's episode Choma to feel like you were here in person. No fomo, no Romo.

[Chen Minati Choma]

I cannot wait. I will.

[Chloe Mel]

Choma. Did you watch the Super Bowl?

[Chen Minati Choma]

I didn't, but I watched the halftime show on repeat the next day. Best halftime.

[Chloe Mel]

You watched Cho on repeat. Wow.

[Chen Minati Choma]

Yeah, it was so good. I just think Kendrick's a genius. And there was so many Easter eggs, so many, like, so much symbolism buried within the performance. You kind of had to watch it a few times.

[Chloe Mel]

Oh, my God. I know. Even what he was wearing, there was so much. The Gloria jacket. Yeah, there was a lot going on.

[Chen Minati Choma]

Yeah, the Gloria jacket. Yeah, it was a lot going on. I mean, he broke the Internet with his flares.

[Chloe Mel]

Oh, my God. Well, we have a big debate internally about flare versus boot cut.

[Chen Minati Choma]

Okay.

[Chloe Mel]

And we.

[Chen Minati Choma]

Do we think this is a boot cut or a flare.

[Chloe Mel]

We think this is a boot cut. But there's a lot of debate about what is the difference between the two. And we've decided that a boot cut is a type of flare, just like a square is a type of rectangle.

[Chen Minati Choma]

I mean. Cause there's also bell bottoms. So what's the difference between a bell bottom and a flare I think it's.

[Chloe Mel]

I think a flare is the overarching umbrella under which bell bottom and bootcut live.

[Chen Minati Choma]

Okay, that makes sense to me, but. Cause there's just such a subtle distinction between the two. I think you're right. A flare is like. But you think a boot cut is more specific.

[Chloe Mel]

A boot cut really should just be enough, like a kick flare to go over a boot.

[Chen Minati Choma]

Yeah, yeah. So then a bell bottom is kind of an. On the other end because it's quite.

[Chloe Mel]

A bell bottom is as wide as.

[Chen Minati Choma]

You can go as it go. Okay. I just can't remember the last time that a halftime performer was able to start a trend in fashion. I mean, it's kind of amazing.

[Chloe Mel]

It's crazy. Artie's preschool teacher this morning was like, I need to talk to you about Kendrick's bell bottom jeans. I have bell bottom, so I'm ahead of the trend. I was like, nalco, you are ahead of the trend. And then his current teacher was like, I know. I saw that too. I bought my son Hollister jeans for Christmas, and he made me return them because they were flared. And now I told him that we were on trend. So it really. This is.

[Chen Minati Choma]

I mean, you know, and I think Pharrell has been rocking a boot cut since he did the cowboy inspired show. So I think we have to give some credit where credit's due or at least say that this is a building trend.

[Chloe Mel]

I feel like it's like, it's been.

[Chen Minati Choma]

Quite commit to a flair.

[Chloe Mel]

Kendra the boohajun is like the Helen of Troy. It's like the. The jeans that launched a thousand Celine dupes.

[Chen Minati Choma]

Something about denim trends just triggers people or gets people going. Like, I don't know why, but I guess because denim is such a humble, universal American fabric. But, like, yeah, anything about denim trends, like, you can go so micro on denim trends. And people have so much to say and feel very, like, unsettled. Like, it's still a pair of jeans, like, but you can go. It can communicate so many different things and get people. Yeah, people are definitely talking about those flares here. Like, everybody's talking about Kendrick. Kendrick just like. I mean, he just set the world alight. And your girl Sza, she really looked amazing, Sounded amazing. Samuel L. Jackson as Uncle Sam.

[Chloe Mel]

Oh, I know. In Bodhi.

[Chen Minati Choma]

In Bodhi. You know, so so much political messaging and then Serena Crip walking.

[Chloe Mel]

I know from.

[Chen Minati Choma]

I mean, it was. It was amazing.

[Chloe Mel]

Choma, I want to know what you're doing for Valentine's Day since you and your Valentine have An ocean between you.

[Chen Minati Choma]

It was my partner's 40th birthday yesterday, but yeah, I'm not, I'm not. I'm a bit of a Valentine's Day.

[Chloe Mel]

Like, oh, are you a Valentine's Day hater? I kind of forgot about that.

[Chen Minati Choma]

I am. I'm not. Like, I never really. I mean, I do. Speaking of Valentine's Day, I do love all the love stories on on vogue.com and I feel very excited to see that this year they're all themed around astrology, which isn't quite as good.

[Chloe Mel]

We're dipping our toe choma. For the uninitiated, Anna Wintour is not a huge fan of astrology. So we've tried a way for them. That's an understatement.

[Chen Minati Choma]

But you know, how did you get this one? How did you sneak this one in?

[Chloe Mel]

Because people, when you look across the company at what stories perform the best worldwide, they are all astrology stories. And I, we don't have to do what's your horoscope for the week or the day, whatever. But I do feel like there's ways to cover astrology in funny, unexpected takes on it. And we have done this love story series for the past couple of years that Chloe Shama has spearheaded. And last year our theme was I think, secrets and lies.

[Chen Minati Choma]

Yeah.

[Chloe Mel]

And this year we decided that a lot of the youth in the Vogue office are really making a lot of decisions based on astrology. And so we had all of our stories be astrology focused. We even had Maya Lane, one of our intrepid Gen Z colleagues, do an intense first person investigation where she dated, went on dates with her three least compatible signs and oh my God, I.

[Chen Minati Choma]

Need to read that.

[Chloe Mel]

I encourage everyone to read that immediately. Really gripping takeaways.

[Chen Minati Choma]

I love that she did that for the sake of art. This is very. This is.

[Chloe Mel]

There was a lot of debate about when to.

[Chen Minati Choma]

This is my kind of first person story.

[Chloe Mel]

Yeah. We couldn't decide when she had to tell the dates. We decided halfway through the date.

[Chen Minati Choma]

Oh my God.

[Chloe Mel]

Valentine's Day plans. I am actually going to. There is the big Saturday Night Live's 50th anniversary event is sort of all over this weekend. It's Friday night is a big concert at Radio City and then a party at the San Vicente Bungalows. And Sunday night is. Is a special three hour show with an after party at the Plaza. And I am going with my mom. I am an SNL spouse in this case, but I'm very excited and that is taking up my Valentine's Day plans. We don't really do Valentine's either. Although I have to say I was very touched. I was sort of struggling last week and Graham knows that food based acts of service are my love language and he always makes me nachos for the super bowl. And I thought that he would forget this year because we were, you know, sort of strangled by lack of childcare. But then he and Arthur went out and did a secret errand and made us delicious nachos and I felt like that was the Valentine's Day gift I wanted.

[Chen Minati Choma]

Oh, that's so nice.

[Chloe Mel]

What else? I mean, everyone's just getting gearing up for Oscars and figuring out who's actually gonna win. It is an interesting race this year with the Emilia Perez drama and it doesn't feel like a surefire film is gonna sweep. So I need to catch up on my films and be ready for that in two weeks.

[Chen Minati Choma]

Yeah, we're gearing up for the baftas here, so. Right. I still haven't decided what I'm gonna wear, but I think I'm wearing something vintage. I'm doing the last thing tomorrow and we are this year we're teaming up with gq. So my lovely colleague Adam Badawi, who is the head of British gq is going to be co hosting with me, Cynthia Erivo and Adrien Brody. Harry Stanford.

[Chloe Mel]

Adrian Brody was sitting next to Anna at Thom Browne doing a lot of videotaping. He was very into the whole affair.

[Chen Minati Choma]

Oh, amazing. And wow. Well, so yeah, we have, we have him, we have Cynthia, we have Harris, and we have Mikey Madison. So I think it's going to be a really fun party and we're sort of, we're doing it differently this year. So I think it's going to be really fun partnering with, with the guys.

[Chloe Mel]

With the GQ guys, the bros. We love that. I'm excited.

[Chen Minati Choma]

Yeah. Yeah, me too.

[Chloe Mel]

The run through will be back in just a moment.

[Chen Minati Choma]

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[Chloe Mel]

I am so excited to talk about this cover because I have to say I am a sucker for a classic old school vogue cover. And this to me, I feel like I really got the dopamine hit. To me it delivers Everything you want it to, visually. And then I had the treat of reading Abby's story, and it's so much fun, and I feel like it's like this forensic investigation of the Carpenters and Sabrinadom and what it means to be Sabrina, and it was a feat.

[Taylor Antrim]

Chloe, I agree with you. I mean, the thing that's so cool about this cover, also having worked at Vogue for a long time, is that when someone gets their first Vogue cover, it is like a. It's like a certain kind of, like, charge. Has an extra little charge that comes along with it. And for Sabrina Carpenter to be on the COVID of the March issue, which is like, our second biggest issue of the year after the September issue. And it's always like a. Like a big sort of fashion issue, one that we throw a lot of ambition into, really does kind of feel like a special moment. So I'm. It's a great thing.

[Chloe Mel]

Abby, I remember when you were the culture [e-mail] and you since moved to the west coast, but you, I feel like, have become one of the most beloved cover writers in Taylor's stable of thoroughbreds.

[Abby Aguirre]

That's so nice.

[Taylor Antrim]

Yeah. The thing is, Abby really does her homework. And the one that I was thinking of when Sabrina kind of came along as gonna be our cover is, Abby, I was thinking about your. I think it was 2019. When was Taylor Swift 2019. 2019. So I was like, that's what we need. Because that was. I feel like you went to. You got a PhD in Taylor Swift studies to write that cover story. Yes. And I was like, it's going to require similar scholarship here for Sabrina Carpenter.

[Abby Aguirre]

And when you asked me if I would want to write about it, Sabrina, I had a similar feeling in my gut that I had with Taylor, which was, I don't know that I know enough. And then I remembered immediately that that resulted in a very different kind of piece, and that that could potentially be the case here.

[Taylor Antrim]

So tell us what you did to prepare, because I remember that, too. I remember having that conversation with you, because I know you plunge into preparation. But tell me, you know, give our listeners a little sense of behind the scenes, of how you get prepared to meet someone like Sabrina.

[Abby Aguirre]

So before I went to the show, I just spent a lot of time with her music. I listened to a podcast that I love that's now on vox, where they really break down the music.

[Chloe Mel]

What podcast?

[Abby Aguirre]

Switched On Pop. It's so good. They are. One of them is a songwriter who teaches at nyu, and the other one is, like, a Musicologist. And they don't get into the lore. They don't get into the celebrity stuff. They don't get into anything. They just talk about what's going on in the music, and they break it down, like, musically. Like, it's almost like song exploder, except that they're not interviewing the person. And I did not spend a lot of time in the Sabrina universe online, so it was really helpful to go to the show because immediately, I mean, I drove into this arena, and it was just swarmed with thousands of young girls all wearing this dress code. It was like, sexy Valentine's Day. I mean, it was, like, sexy Halloween, but it was Valentine's Day because there's hearts everywhere, and there was a layer of it that it was my hometown, and this is the place where I was that age girl. So I immediately like, oh, my God.

[Taylor Antrim]

You know, I also just want to let listeners know what's really fun about working with Abby is pre deadline. You'll get these, like, text messages where it's like, she's discovering something about the artist that she's or the COVID star that you're working on that you're so excited to share. And it's like, I got one midway through that was like, taylor, Taylor, did you know how sexual Sabrina Carpenter's lyrics are? And to be honest, Abby, I mean, I shouldn't admit this, like, on mic, but I was like, the honest answer. Not really, because A, I don't really. I don't really listen to lyrics that carefully, and B, my daughter's, like, 12, and she's just slightly maybe too young for Sabrina. I had not really gotten into lyrics, but after I had this text exchange with Abby where she's like, dude, it's really R rated. I went on to genius. I looked at some of the lyrics, and I was like, oh, my goodness. And then I wandered down the hall here at Vogue HQ and talked to some of my younger colleagues. I was like, guys, did you know how sexual Sabrina Carpenter's lyrics are? And the look that that I received was just priceless.

[Abby Aguirre]

What we're talking about is also why it's become a bit of a controversy, because you can eat it, you can miss it. You could hear espresso and miss it. If you're not. If you're not in that zone, if you're not in the demographic, you could have no idea. And then you go to the show. I mean, you for sure got a text after I was at the show. I'm not one to wear pearls, but if I were I would have been clutching them. I was like, oh, my God. And I was sitting behind her father.

[Taylor Antrim]

Yeah, you gotta tell us about her family. You met her whole family backstage in San Diego. Tell us about that.

[Abby Aguirre]

She has three sisters and there was only one sister there. But her parents rolled in on their rv.

[Chloe Mel]

That made me laugh out loud that they got an accident. Not that that's funny, but the way you presented it was very funny.

[Abby Aguirre]

They presented it in a very funny way. They're all very funny and it was all very lighthearted and comical. But they had been on this road trip that had turned into a comedy of basically. And they'd finally arrived. So they were just, you know, and it all happened as the Grammy nominations were announced. So then Sabrina relayed that basically nobody cared because everybody was preoccupied with their flat tires and this and that. And, you know, she's just very funny. She's very funny immediately. She's very comfortable. And I felt very comfortable there. And I. It wasn't like scripted to spend time with her family, but it was a happy accident that that was. Who happened to be backstage.

[Chloe Mel]

Well, Abby, I have a question because you, as we've discussed, have become such a specialist of the pop star and the superstar. And I do feel like someone like Taylor, I remember interviewing her also. And she is so on message and she is so well controlled. And I'm sure that's true for Adele, Rihanna, other people you've been with. But was Sabrina open? Was she closely media trained? Like, what was the vibe of. Of her personality?

[Abby Aguirre]

She feels very open to me. She's very. I mean, I can tell that she's very much making McCall what she wants to talk about and what she doesn't, which I think just her generation, I mean, even Taylor on down, everyone that age, like, they are personally making the call what they share and what they don't share. They've been art directing their lives, you know, from day one. So they.

[Chloe Mel]

Right.

[Abby Aguirre]

They're in charge. They're very much like decide what they're going to share with you and what they're not. And she was, you know, she. When she didn't want to share something, she just would. She wouldn't be evasive about it or coy. She would just be like. And that's that. You know, she wasn't trying to pretend. She was giving me the. The whole answer. Like, she would just be like. And nope. She's very open. You can tell she's very open. She says all. I mean, she was very forthright. And if she didn't want to discuss something. She was forthright about not wanting to discuss it.

[Taylor Antrim]

Tell us what the show was actually like. And we all saw a little bit of it at the Grammys, which I think was a pretty blockbuster performance.

[Abby Aguirre]

I had to do a lot of work afterward just to understand sort of the many layers of what I had just seen. It was incredibly entertaining. It is, as the set designer put it, a sculptural environment. In other words, it's not a set. She's not standing. I mean, there's a set, but it's. It's not a backdrop. It's a home. And it's designed as a Manhattan penthouse apartment. And it unfolds in the style of a sort of old school variety show. The references she mentioned were the original Cher show and then Playboy After Dark. It's also supposed to be a TV show. So there are old cameras being wheeled around. And I thought, oh, maybe they're making a concert film. Until I realized they were like super vintage looking cameras. And it was just supposed to sort of look like they were actually filming Playboy After Dark. And she sort of moves throughout the architectural space in a way that every room. Like she performs a new song and in a new room. So bed Kim is in the bedroom on a heart shaped pink satin bed that is an homage to the bed in Austin. I mean, every single thing is a reference and a layer of, you know, no detail is too small. And at some point she sits on a heart shaped toilet and performs a song, one of the songs where she's crying about a boy. And as the set designer explained it to me, there's heart shaped soaps and like a clamshell dish that no one will see except her. But it's where she feels like, you know, it's real. There's a point at which she performs one of her sort of folkier songs and like a 60s conversation pit and kind of interacts with the audience down there. But I mean, everything is a reference. Like, her references are so deep, just not just musically. So it was fun to sort of unpack it after the fact. But Beatlemania volume screaming, as I said in the piece, like just head splitting. And there's a moment. She has a very funny song. You know, listeners should look it up. It's about. It's called dumb and poetic, but there's a whole moment in it with Leonard Cohen. And so there's this moment where they lead into this song with this old Leonard Cohen footage. And then just to hear all these teen girls screaming this raunchy lyric about Leonard Cohen. I was so amused. I mean, it was so funny. What could make Leonard Cohen happier than to know that an arena full of teenage girls were looking at him and screaming?

[Taylor Antrim]

And somehow none of this seems like wrong. Right. I'm so interested in how she kind of wears this cheeky kind of playboy after dark Persona. She seems to wear it really lightly. It doesn't come across as forced or gross or any of that. Right. Like, what's your take on how she sort of comes across, the sort of ultra feminine Persona that she puts out there?

[Abby Aguirre]

She does wear it lightly. The music doesn't sound dangerous in that way. It doesn't sound kind of transgressive. It all sounds so retro. So it kind of sneaks up on you if you're not expecting it. And so. But it's very casually sexual. I'll say that there are some scenes there where I was like, oh my God, I'm like, her father's sitting here, like, what's the plumber? You know, like just. But she wears it lightly. I think that's a good description.

[Taylor Antrim]

Something I wasn't fully aware of, which is that Short and Sweet is her sixth, that is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 album Crazy. It's crazy, right?

[Chloe Mel]

It blew me away.

[Taylor Antrim]

And Abby, you did a deep dive in albums one through five. But what I particularly liked about I think five is called Emails I Never Sent, which is quite a sort of, you know, introspective pop album. What I really liked is how you sort of charted this moment where she kind of breaks out of her former record contract and starts trying these sort of deadpan, witty, full of her new Persona moves on the last tour. And you sort of chart the arrival of the espresso Sabrina Carpenter. So can you talk about that a little bit like, particularly the outros that she did in various countries when she was opening for Taylor Swift.

[Abby Aguirre]

She. That album was very different in tone, but it was like, much as she described it, her biggest heartbreak. It was really raw for her, the album itself. And then as she described it once she was touring and especially when she was opening for Taylor, that the mood sort of changed, that she started wearing more garter belts and more corsets and that it just went from sort of like sad and in mourning and in grief over. Over Love Lost to actually, I'm a really fun person and I can be funny on stage. And she started and like. And also being more provocative, but that, you know, kind of hitting on that combination of two things where she just started to Feel, you know, like more provocative. And then she started with this one song nonsense. She started improvising these outros that sort of got sillier and dirtier as the tour went on and they would be tailored to each city. I thought that that was where maybe the idea to sort of like go in this other direction with Espresso came on to her. It wasn't conscious, but I feel like that was the bridge from between albums.

[Chloe Mel]

Do you think that there's more of her that's going to come out in future albums that like, what would you like to see from the next album, for example?

[Abby Aguirre]

I wonder the same thing. I'm like, what will come next after this? I mean, the thing about her is that she. And especially when I went to deep dive into all her. Her little old YouTube videos that she posted when she was like 9 years old and part of this Miley Cyrus singing contest. She can do every genre she knows. She was singing Black Sabbath, she was singing Etta James. I think she voracious in her consumption and performance of music. And I think that that really frustrated her on her previous record label. That was sort of the whole deal with Short and Sweet is that she was always told like, you can't blend genres. And I think that she was like, oh, really? Hold my beer. Like, I think that was this album, you know, and so I think. I don't know stylistically what the future holds for her, but she has such a reservoir of musical just range and chops that I think that it, like, it's not shocking to me at all that Dolly is turning up on the next version of Short and Sweet, which she's dropping on the 14th. She's very Dolly and she loves. She's obsessed with Dolly and Stevie Nicks.

[Chloe Mel]

I just am amazed by both. This cover shoot specifically seems to reference old Hollywood glamour and old Holly and sort of bombshell blondes in a fresh, unexpected way. But her Grammys performance and her look at the Grammys reminded me that she's often referencing iconic blondes of many varieties, whether it's Madonna or Marilyn Monroe. She wore a custom Loewe ice blue satin dress to the Grammys that was very much a reference to Shirley MacLaine in what a Way to Go, the 1964 movie, down to this enormous diamond dripping from her back.

[Abby Aguirre]

I mean, everything has a reference with her. One of the dance numbers was like Bye Bye Birdie, plus the Grease slumber party. Yeah, that's just visually, musically, it's a totally different reference. And in the one where she's like, in the conversation pit wearing a very specific black catsuit that's referencing all of these catsuits that Marilyn War. But the song is an homage to Joni Mitchell. Like, every moment with her is like a lasagna of references. So it doesn't surprise me. She was referencing a Shirley MacLaine movie.

[Taylor Antrim]

And can we agree that that Grammys performance, like, you asked what she's gonna do next. I feel like after that Grammys performance, she can write her own ticket. I mean, there were people in the Vogue offices who were like, you know, cast her in the next, like, summer blockbuster movie like this. Sabrina Carpenter can do anything.

[Abby Aguirre]

She has this thing that I've seen other people have who are in pop music where. And I think the COVID hits on this. It's like this mysterious combination of being incredibly modern and utterly timeless at the same time.

[Taylor Antrim]

You know, for the record, we should say that the shoot is Steven Meisel. The incomparable Steven Meisel. He did the COVID and the inside pictures, and they're styled by IB Kamara. And honestly, when they landed in the Vogue offices, it was one of these moments that happens, you know, from time to time. But it's really kind of special when it happens where everybody has to gather around a table and look at these pictures and kind of ooh and ah over them. And I thought I, like, took surreptitious pictures with my iPhone and texted them to Abby because I was so excited. And, Abby, you were, like, perfect.

[Chloe Mel]

Abby, we loved your article so much. Thank you for joining us today and taking us behind the scenes.

[Taylor Antrim]

Can't wait for the next one. Abby.

[Chloe Mel]

Bye, Abby.

[Taylor Antrim]

Bye.

[Chloe Mel]

Taylor. Take us inside the March issue. Tell us more.

[Taylor Antrim]

Yeah, so that was Sabrina Carpenter, which is sort of the centerpiece of this issue. But I really. This is quite a special issue. As I was saying, like, the March issue is our second biggest of the year. It's always, like, a really big moment in the editorial calendar where we, you know, sort of bring it a little bit. And March is.

[Chloe Mel]

What did you bring?

[Taylor Antrim]

Well, March is always a big fashion issue, but flipping through this thing, I have to say it's really a ton of features in here. This is how it went down. Oftentimes we have a working theme for these issues that don't necessarily come across in a really obvious way when we're done, but they're really helpful to us in terms of planning. Anna. And you mentioned Virginia Smith, our fashion director. And Willow and others were thinking about the larger fashion landscape and how all of these designers are moving houses. And there's just a lot of change and a sense of musical chairs in the fashion world, but kind of in an interesting way. And the really sort of signal example of this would be Alessandro Michele taking on the creative directorship at Valentino. And we had commissioned a big deep dive profile of Michele for this issue. And Anna was talking about how this is a moment for what she started calling the new headliners. That's not so much people who are new on the scene, who we haven't heard from before, but established people a bit like Michele, who are moving into new moments in their career. And so we started thinking more broadly about that concept. And who else in the sort of cultural universe, the Vogue universe, the extended Vogue universe, could we say that about? And so you really gotta check out the Michaele profile in this issue. It's got some really magnificent photographs by Annie Leibovitz. She shot Sarah Burton, who is taking over at Givenchy. And this was actually back in New York, but Heder Ackerman, who's the new designer at Tom Ford. So those are like a trio of designers who are.

[Chloe Mel]

It's kind of a. Packs a power punch of designer profiles.

[Taylor Antrim]

Totally, totally. And that was really sort of the backbone of this issue. And then you add Sabrina Carpenter on top of that, who's like, you know, undeniably having this incredible moment. And then there was a little bit of a brainstorming moment of like, who else in the culture is, you know, could be described that way. And that brought us to the artist Lorna Simpson, which is another portrait that you've got to check out in this issue. She's really like such a veteran artist and so important in the art world, but she is having this really important moment in her career where she has a huge solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum focused on her painting. And Simpson was more of a photo collage artist early in her career, but she started painting about a decade ago. And this is an exhibition really focused on these beautiful large scale paintings which we've reproduced several of them in the issue. What else can I interest you in? If you like. Do you like Paul Mescal? Are you a Paul Mescal fan, Chloe?

[Chloe Mel]

I am indeed. It sounds like you're like, I don't know, some kind of backroom dealer.

[Taylor Antrim]

What else can I sign for March issue? No, it's fun. We lined up a bunch of profiles. So there's Paul Mescal here, who is in Streetcar Named Zire, which is coming to BAM in Brooklyn.

[Chloe Mel]

I feel like it's said in a more hearty Irish way. Paul Mescal. You make it sound like Mezcal Tequila.

[Taylor Antrim]

Totally.

[Chloe Mel]

Like, may I sell you some mezcal from the March issue, The south of.

[Taylor Antrim]

The version of Paul Mezcal. Okay, yeah, let's not do that anymore. And then issue of Vogue would not be complete without some tennis coverage. So we have two of the young guns of male tennis that are really coming up in the game. Jack Draper and Ben Shelton. And we have an amazing portrait of Chimamanda Adichie. Chimamanda Ngoze Adichie, whose new novel, Dream Count, is her first since Americana 10.

[Chloe Mel]

Years ago that I'm excited about.

[Taylor Antrim]

And she wrote an original personal essay for us about a crush she had when she was a schoolgirl. It's a really touching.

[Chloe Mel]

That's quite a couple.

[Taylor Antrim]

Yeah. So it's awesome. It's like, it's a packed issue and, you know, good old magazine making. It's fun to, like, bring a lot of things together between two covers, and it's one we're proud of.

[Chloe Mel]

Who says print is dead? All right, that's it for the show. See you next week. The Run through is produced by Chelsea Daniel, Alex DePalma and Joanna Solotaro. It's engineered by Jake Loomis, Luke Moseley, and James Yost. It is mixed by Mike Kutchman. Stephanie Kariuki is our executive producer, and Chris Bannon is Conde Nast's head of Global audio.

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