South London-born photographer Nadine Ijewere is half Jamaican and half Nigerian and incorporates her familial roots in all of her work, aiming to champion diversity using carefully selected subjects. Since graduating from London College of Fashion, Ijewere has been opening eyes with a catalogue of striking work, from Hair Story editorials, which examined women of colour and an array of hair styles, to her photo series The Misrepresentation of Representation, where she explores different cultures using beautiful portraits of women, a major part of her thesis while graduating The London College of Fashion.
In the newest #StellaBy Series, Ijewere’s theme in her work is no different. Her series sees male models wearing Stella McCartney women’s and men’s Spring Summer 2017 with street-cast models who were cast in Nigeria. The Series results in raw, powerful imagery of men and women facing Ijewere’s lens, with stoic facial expressions. Ijewere injected her personal flair to showcase the collection, with a signature touch of humour.
Nadine Ijewere received wide attention for her well-known series entitled Same/Difference, which sheds a light on the definition of beauty through gentle portraits of siblings. In this #StellaBy Series#StellaBy Series, her photos draw on the themes she normally explores in her work – the exploration of the Other in fashion, and storytelling through the vulnerability and strength of her subjects, who are of an array of often boxed-in ethnicities: “Culture is a big inspiration of mine as well as identity, which is a reoccurring theme within my work,” Ijewere explains.
“My work is all about celebration of diversity, and different interpretations of beauty. I think its a wonderful thing and I want to capture that,” she says. With the collections presenting strong, bright colours and prints, Ijewere made sure her carefully-rendered photography reflected this. Ijewere decided on Nigeria as the location as it inspired the “raw, earthy element” in her work. “At the time time, I wanted to shoot this project where I have family heritage, using people with my background I think this adds a more personal approach to the images,” she recounts.
“As the project is called #StellaBy, I wanted to add more of my identity to the imagery. I wanted to give a feeling of diversity and not sticking to the rules – being different. Nigeria is a country that is known to be quite conservative, particularly in fashion with no blurring between lines. So I wanted to shake things up,” she says – aptly using her heritage to inform her work. With men modeling the women’s clothes, Ijewere yet again challenged the idea of womenswear, by making the portraits unexpected “I think it questions the labelling of ‘womenswear’ and brings more character to the work.”
It is clear that the photographer’s love of portraiture is embedded into her work – the models cast for the shoot had a sense of vulnerability and strength which is so often highlighted in Ijewere’s imagery: “The eyes are the most important feature. In this instance, the clothing sometimes does not matter as much because I want to capture the essence of the subject.”
dress + gloves. Nana Jacqueline
scarf. Tia Adeola
earrings. Nickho Rey
One day, you’re a student in a prestigious acting studio. The other, you’re scolding Billy Bob Thornton on the set of a popular-to-be TV show. Paulina Chávez has been a part of this industry for years, but getting a role in ‘Landman’ was a milestone for her. As she admits, without any hesitation, she was “absolutely ready” for such a turn of events.
“My character, Ariana, is so different from me, yet there are many similarities. To be so young and be able to play someone as Ariana is a dream for an actress.” Even during her early days, while Chávez was just learning how to act, one of the characters she played was a woman interrogating a man. “She ends up castrating him, so when I read the script for ‘Landman’ for the first time, I immediately knew this was something for me!” the show’s star laughs.
In the modern film industry, there are two types of actors: those who are late and those who are not. Born in El Paso, Texas, the 23-year-old actress falls into the second category, as she joins our Zoom meeting right on time, despite a packed schedule. The second season of Taylor Sheridan’s ‘Landman’ has just premiered, and Chávez is right in the middle of her press tour. Everyone keeps talking about the show. And, it’s barely a surprise – it got bolder, funnier and more intense, even if it remains one huge chaotic ride, full of its ironic humour, old-fashioned jokes and a lot of grotesque elements that carry through the episodes.
In ‘Landman’, Ariana’s husband dies when an oil pump blows up during one of his gigs. Suddenly, her life undergoes drastic changes within a span of a second. I tell Chávez that the same can be said about her, even if we are speaking of two different circumstances. Yet, the show still gave her traction, and it is one of the reasons we meet today. The actress admits that she thought about such parallels while filming the show, especially during the second season. “We’re going to see even more changes affecting Ariana’s life.”
fur jacket. Meruert Tolegen
skirt. Contessa Mills
earrings. 8 Other Reasons
opposite
top + skirt. Tia Adeola
heels. Roger Vivier
earrings. Retro Chic
necklace + belt. Streets Ahead
bracelet. Tarina Tarantino
Grieving leads us to strange places – after losing her husband in season one, Ariana regains her strength by finding some emotional support in Cooper (Jacob Lofland). I’m curious if Chávez remembers where grieving has led her in her life – after our interview, I’ll realise it was a question asked rather too soon. But, it gives us a new sort of dynamic as she opens up about the death of an important relative.
“I remember when I booked my first show for Netflix, and I was so excited about this opportunity. However, a week before I started working on this show, I had learned that my grandma had passed away.” She admits it was a huge blow for her. “The happiness and joy are mixed with the feeling of being depressed – I realised that my grandma would never be able to watch the final product. Life is so unpredictable and nobody knows how to navigate grief.”
Inevitably, by waking up every day, Chávez had to learn how to do it. “I’m a person who feels everything,” she confesses. “I can’t watch devastating movies, as I always put myself in all those situations.” While playing Ariana, she was terrified that someone close to her might suddenly die. “All of it was really draining, especially when you filter your characters’ experiences through your own story. So, I often relied on my breathing exercises, which allowed me to leave Ariana behind.”
She emphasises how vital it is for actors to practice self-care after intense scenes. “Whenever I finish a demanding shooting day, I go back home, take a bath and listen to a good album.” For Ariana, Chávez had a dedicated playlist. While working on the first season, she listened to Raye’s ‘My 21st Century Blues’ (“I still come back to it quite religiously!”). Meanwhile, the second season guided her into different musical territories. As Ariana, she put Bad Bunny’s latest album, ‘Debí Tirar Más Fotos’, on her headphones.
dress shirt. Contessa Mills
boots. Dolce & Gabbana
belt (used as necklace). Streets Ahead
socks. Dolce & Gabbana
Grieving has enabled Chávez to form a personal connection with her character. “I’m not a widow,” she says, “but I could understand her more. I also remember when I was five, and my aunt lost her husband. Even as a child, I witnessed the entire process and could see her own process for grieving. It’s difficult to recover from this.” I notice how the actress is – quite evidently – clasping her hands. She’s generally relaxed, but also slightly hesitant, as the old wounds are being opened. But, maybe this is what you need from a stranger interviewing you on Zoom – a brief moment to be able to tell the truth and only the truth.
Oscar Isaac once said that “being a thespian requires you to be fully confident about what you’re doing.” But – as he argued – actors are “full of uncertainties.” Seemingly, after hearing this quote, Chávez agrees with the ‘Frankenstein’ actor. So, how does she work on her own self-assurance both as an actress and a woman in the film industry? The actress once again clasps her hands, as she needs a moment to think about it. “I’m often scared of forgetting lines on set,” she admits. “I always try to be as open as possible, to know everything about my character. And, I try to have a good relationship with the creatives, so we’re on the same page.”
One of the scenes she mentions is a dinner sequence from the first season, when things get intense between Ariana and Tommy, Billy Bob Thornton’s character. “You always need to trust other people on set. Obviously, they want the project to succeed and will do everything to make it work. They will try to guide you, so it’s all about trust,” she explains. Chávez reveals that Sheridan wanted to be delicate in telling Ariana’s storyline because it’s “so easy to judge her.” “She falls in love while grieving! Yet, it’s life – you never know when a certain tenderness is going to hit you.”
dress + gloves. Nana Jacqueline
heels. Rene Caovilla
scarf. Tia Adeola
earrings. Nickho Rey
opposite
jacket. Baum und Pfergarten
dress. Contessa Mills
heels. Roger Vivier
earrings. Miansai
necklace. Brosway
gloves. Branden Ruiz
belt. Streets Ahead
When it comes to navigating her personal life in modern Hollywood, it’s more about “trusting yourself” and always being ready for the most unexpected. Chávez calls herself a person who “overthinks everything” and “overprepares.” But, as she states, it gives her a dose of confidence to go on a set and be ready for every kind of scenario. This way, as she assures me, she’s got “Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C.” Chávez probably has even more plans for every role – she stops counting for the sake of brevity, but I’m certain she could just go on.
Ariana is also a powerful Latina force of nature, and her roots play a part in the way she handles her grief. “But, it’s not only that,” the actress says. “It’s a portrayal of people I know. Whenever I had scenes where I needed Ariana to express herself, even through shouting, I still reflected on all those experiences from my past.” Chávez also believes that Mexicans grieve differently from Americans. “It’s all about community and it gets Ariana through everything. Their love language is food. Feeding someone means actually loving someone.”
Season two depicts another stage of Ariana’s internal suffering. “She will have to accept her new reality and learn how to live in it again. She’s acknowledging the fact that her first love is gone, and now it’s time to move on, while treasuring all the memories.” Chávez feels that everyone has their own way of coping with the loss, and it’s rarely discussed in public. “I’m not viewed as fully American or Mexican, so I guess there’s some mixture of those two worlds in both me and my acting. I think we are all expected to get over our inner sadness. I suppose I was expected to let my grief go away after the death of my grandma. Though it always stays with us. I also remember my parents crying for the first time. If they find it difficult, then how am I supposed to go through all of it?”
When Ariana’s grief passes, at least for a while, there is still motherhood that needs to be handled. During our conversation, I mention Uta Hagen, a highly influential acting teacher, who once wrote that one needs to create their character by drawing on some personal experiences. Hagen’s approach is being echoed, as Chávez remembers how “crazy” it was for her to become an on-screen mother at the age of 22. Five months before she auditioned, her sister gave birth to her first child. The actress went to Colorado with her mother to help the family with a newborn. “It’s so much work! I have no idea how two people do it, let alone a single parent like Ariana.”
top + skirt. Tia Adeola
heels. Roger Vivier
earrings. Retro Chic
necklace + belt. Streets Ahead
bracelet. Tarina Tarantino
In Colorado, she was on nightshifts with her nephew, which enabled her to understand every little challenge related to motherhood. “It was everything, from changing the diapers to helping with feeding the baby,” Chávez recalls. In a way, becoming Ariana allowed her to reflect on her sister’s recent experience, although she still wasn’t prepared for every little obstacle. “I also learned that depicting breastfeeding on screen isn’t a piece of cake. I worked with a pillow, and even if I was holding it correctly, it all comes down to a camera angle. My intimacy coordinator gave a lot of cues on how to imitate breastfeeding as Ariana properly.”
There’s some hidden beauty in this on-screen process despite the entire tragedy her character is going through. At some point, Ariana says to Cooper, “I feel happy and I shouldn’t,” and it’s a moment to reflect on – for both characters and the spectator. I ask Chávez if she also remembers the last time she felt happy when she shouldn’t have – and it all goes back to her late grandma, who, at this point, feels like someone more than just an important family figure. “When I was doing the press tour in the US, I wanted to share it all with her or the person I just broke up with,” ‘Landman’’s star admits.
Chávez doesn’t have to be on a film set to think about Ariana. “I see her as a family member. I’ve lived with her character for so many months, so she’s always there, right beside me.” ‘Landman’ has just been renewed for its third season, but will it be difficult to let Ariana go once it eventually ends its run? “I remember when Friends finished. I already know it’s gonna be heartbreaking. But, Ariana’s living within me.” She smiles. “And I think she is never gonna go anywhere.”
Sonja Weißer is captivating audiences with her charisma, both on screen and on stage. With the upcoming release of two series, a film festival screening and more, the odds for 2025 are decidedly in this rising star’s favour. “In drama, you can play pure love in one scene and the most broken version of a person in the next,” Weißer explains, wearing Miu Miu for her Schön! 49 digital cover story. “This intensity is what interests me most about people – their emotions and their extremes. I love extremes. I’m a little bit of an adrenaline junkie.”
The eve of Thanksgiving, New York hosted a party that was a mix of many things – a homecoming, a release party, a surprise, and a sort of communion. Madison Square Garden – the mythical arena where everyone from Springsteen to Harry Styles has claimed the stage – opened its doors to a crowd that looked less like an audience and more like a family reunion. There were flags – plenty of them – Dominican, Puerto Rican, Mexican – and a great sense of collective excitement and pride. The reason for this get together? Romeo Santos and Prince Royce, finally, impossibly, devoutly – together. The two icons of Bachata – nicknamed King and Prince of the genre, respectively – have been covertly working on a 13-track surprise album, keeping everything under wraps until the very last minute. The news dropped officially when Romeo Santos teased a new album on his Instagram.
‘Better Late Than Never’ is an album that has been years in the making – since 2017 to be precise – and traces the careers of the two legendary singers. The listening party was a celebration of this longstanding friendship. When the lights went up and revealed the two Bachateros on stage, against the backdrop of the New York skyline, the Garden picked up a pulse. A burst of collective euphoria, running from the upper decks to the floor, a joyous roar between pride, memory, and excitement. It was the sound of kids who grew up with bachata leaking from their parents’ kitchen radios, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with their parents, cousins, friends for the release of ‘Better Late Than Never’.
Romeo Santos and Prince Royce have kept this album carefully secluded away from public eyes and ears, to the point of them devising code names – Batman and Robin – for the music video production and any preparatory work on the release. For a surprise release, the energy felt explosive. The two artists appeared side by side, and the arena shifted.
With New York subway cars and the subway stairs onstage, Romeo Santos and Prince Royce began their presentation of their album. Part sung, part presented and narrated, the listening party was a dynamic show that invited listeners into the world of bachata, New York Latin communities, stories of romance, temptation, seduction and community. Focus track ‘Dardos’ made a strong impact, and ‘Jezabel’ also stood out, with the latter having strong R&B influences. ‘Ay! San Miguel’, a Dominican palo, was a vibrant and more hybrid title which also worked wonders on the crowd. Immaculate stage presence and a feverish connection to their fanbase set the pulse for the evening.
What Santos and Royce played felt like a mirror held up to the city hosting them. Better Late Than Never threads the traditional lines of bachata with R&B undertones, and the kind of bilingual storytelling that just screams “New York”. When the final track – ‘La Última Bachata‘ – drifted in with its bolero ghosts and tributes to Selena Quintanilla, Michael Jackson, Jenni Rivera, Prince, and Dominican legends, the room fell into a rare hush. For a moment, The Garden felt like a church.
There was an emotional honesty to the night. For New Yorkers – especially the Dominican and wider Latino communities that built bachata into the city’s unofficial heartbeat – this wasn’t just an album release. It was an intergenerational tribute, a reminder of the soundtracks that raised them, and a tribute to a New York that still belongs to its diasporas.
As the album track reveal came to a close – the two bachata stars reprised some of their classic, closing with Aventura’s iconic track, ‘Obsesión’. As members of Aventura in the audience listened, Santos looked out at the Garden with an expression of gratitude and tribute – aware of what this city gave him – and what he’s giving back. Royce smiled beside him, the younger prince stepping comfortably into legacy.
South London-born photographer Nadine Ijewere is half Jamaican and half Nigerian and incorporates her familial roots in all of her work, aiming to champion diversity using carefully selected subjects. Since graduating from London College of Fashion, Ijewere has been opening eyes with a catalogue of striking work, from Hair Story editorials, which examined women of colour and an array of hair styles, to her photo series The Misrepresentation of Representation, where she explores different cultures using beautiful portraits of women, a major part of her thesis while graduating The London College of Fashion. 
“As the project is called #StellaBy, I wanted to add more of my identity to the imagery. I wanted to give a feeling of diversity and not sticking to the rules – being different. Nigeria is a country that is known to be quite conservative, particularly in fashion with no blurring between lines. So I wanted to shake things up,” she says – aptly using her heritage to inform her work. With men modeling the women’s clothes, Ijewere yet again challenged the idea of womenswear, by making the portraits unexpected “I think it questions the labelling of ‘womenswear’ and brings more character to the work.” 
