Top talent Dua Lipa covers the September 2023 issue of Vogue France, wearing ALAÏA in a 180° turn away from her bushy, dark brows. Barely-there nude makeup and a blonde no-brows, visual closeup launches a fashion story portrait of Dua Lipa by Mert Alas solo [IG] to kick off the fall 2023 fashion season with austerity.

Fashion director Vanessa Reid chooses from Bottega Veneta, Courrèges, Givenchy, JW Anderson, Loewe, Prada, Rick Owens, Schiaparelli and more in the cover story fashion shoot.

In contrast to her center stage May 2023, joyful butterflies, exquisitely beautiful Versace ‘La Vacanza’ Magic in Cannes, a joyless darkness has settled over Dua Lipa’s France. It is perhaps a sign of the times.

Writer Arthur Dreyfus assures us that his interview with Dua is “intimate and funny”. Like when he asks her:

We sometimes hear that the fear of emptiness is a fear of death. You agree ?

I don't know. I make sure to make the most of every moment. I don't think I'm afraid of death, it's a part of life. And I saw my parents adapt to so many things, face so many complex situations... It made me integrate a principle of reality.

Duality, Duality, Duality

The conversational focus between the two is the 2022 top fashion and design buzzword “duality”. Fair enough.

For a moment I was about to write: But there’s no “she’s an ‘icon’ talk”. Wrong — but I’m still smiling.

i-D wrote in May 2023, updated from 2022, that Lipa was the fourth most streamed artist globally in 2020, which is significant.

Fashion director Vanessa Reid chooses from Bottega Veneta, Courrèges, Givenchy, JW Anderson, Loewe, Prada, Rick Owens, Schiaparelli and more in the cover story fashion shoot.

Dua Lipa has a mini Oprah operation going on with her Service95 website, a place of intellectual ideas and commentary — and her podcast.

The music star talks seriously about LGBTQ issues and also misogyny. Dreyfus queries Lipa’s mindset:

Since #MeToo, do you think things have changed?

#MeToo or not, it's always scary to be a woman and to come home at night on a deserted street. I have so many memories where you prepare your keys in your hands, where you hold your bag, where you pretend to telephone... I don't know if that will change one day.

Apparently, Dua Lipa accompanied Lizzo to a strip club in 2020, and was charged with supporting the exploitation of women. [Note, this is before Lizzo’s current challenges, and I vaguely remember the 2020 event.]

AOC loves Dua Lipa’s thoughts:

Obviously I am against any exploitation. But I also see that we constantly criticize the choices that women make. The land is basic mined. We get slut-shamed for everything and anything. And before attacking people, who cares about their history? So, for me, it's super important to respect women's choices, whatever they are.

Even more consequential are her words about homophobia and transphobia and how close they are to misogyny. I would add again that our brains are also different. As a culture in America — we’re afraid to pick up that thread of investigation. I’ve quoted this 2020 Scientific American article before and note multiple new research references since then waiting for my attention.

Crossing this increasingly major divide threatens us all, once our brain structures are involved. We’re not clear why groups of people with different values have different brain structures, but we absolutely do.

Dua Lipa is highly articulate in how she sees this challenge :

Homophobia and transphobia are close to misogyny. A lot of people, deep down, are just afraid of themselves. The freedom of others confronts them with what they do not have the courage to express. The beauty of a free, true and proud being paralyzes them.

For all the gnashing of teeth about pornography, for example, liberals watch less of it compared to conservatives. We know that fact not by people answering questions. We know this fact because credit card companies have provided comprehensive, by zip code analysis of paid porn subscriptions.

It’s red states, and red areas in blue states who create ‘porn country’. Are you surprised?

You can read the entire Dua Lipa interview in Vogue France. Google translator doesn’t work, for some reason. But on my Mac, if I hit ‘translate’ on my track pad, I had no problem. Vogue France used to have an English version, but I can’t find it today. My shock at the option was enormous in the past — having an English version. ~ Anne