The Beauty Routines We Are Taking Into 2026

0:28This is The Run Through. I'm Chloe Mal. about Hollywood glam and that return on the red carpet and obviously my favorite beauty look, which was Selena Gomez so far this season. Well, I'm very excited to listen. Very excited to get my wellness marching orders for 2026. We have things to discuss today. But first, top of the hour, we have Vogue Business's U.S. editor, Madeline Schultz, here with us to talk all about Vogue Business' big package this week, Fashions Reset, and the residual effects of the Saks Fifth Avenue bankruptcy, which, Maddie, I feel like I still don't really know what that means.

1:09To me, it's similar to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting shutting down. I'm like, but I still have NPR. I still have PBS. I still have Bergdorf. Saks is still on Fifth Avenue. Like, what does this mean for my day-to-day? Yes. And welcome. Thank you. Thanks for having me. My first time on the pod. Oh, my God. This is so exciting. Yeah. Saks is still open. Neiman's still open. Bergdorf is still open. But basically what happened, zooming back to December 2024, Saks acquired Neiman Marcus Group. So Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf. And ever since then have just kind of been going through financial struggles, delaying sometimes missing payments to brands, missing debt payments until last week they wound up filing for bankruptcy, but they also announced$1.75 billion, I believe it was, in financing commitments, which is what's enabling them to stay open as they kind of restructure behind the scenes.

2:04What does that mean, financing commitments? Does that mean they're paying back the vendors that they owe? No, we wish. It means that they've secured$1.75 billion to essentially kind of restructure behind the scenes. Theoretically, some of this can be used to pay back some brands, the bigger brands, but in all likelihood, most of the payments that they owe brands from pre-bankruptcy probably won't get paid back. I want to know if, is there any concern that my Bergdorf's gift card is not going to be working anytime soon? No. Okay, great. They've made sure to ensure everyone that that will still work.

2:40I didn't get, I literally sent, wrote to, I don't know, the IRS about my Barneys$500 gift card, and I still have not gotten that. Oh, my goodness. No, it's not a Barneys sitch just yet. Maddie, I feel like all I keep hearing about is all of the especially smaller brands, independent brands that Saks owes money to. What, is there any hope for them? Are they going to get paid finally? So it's not looking great. Oh, boy. So basically, we've seen sort of the companies that Saks owes the most money to, Chanel is owed$136 million, which is insane. Wow. But we've seen, I think, the top 30 companies that are owed.

3:22But as you say, it's really the independent designers. I think they're getting burned the worst. I spoke to a lot last week. Who are keen to remain anonymous, in part because they're hoping to see some of those payments eventually. But more, I think, just to maintain relationships with Saks for if and when they do get out of hot water. But yeah, for these designers, it's super hard. like for a lot of them, Saks retailers are their biggest wholesale accounts. One New York designer was telling me that he essentially plans his whole year around these Saks buys. So that's how he's paying his team.

3:54That's how he's paying his factories. That's how he's hopefully putting on his show next month. Wow. What else? Tell us about, give us the overline on your amazing, I feel like it was like 10 to 12 articles in your Fashions Reset package. What was the impetus for that yeah so basically post I think it was 15 designer debuts last season 16 if I think I recall correctly um yeah well after all those debuts we were kind of having many conversations at the office well first everyone breathes a sigh of relief and then we got into the conversations about the fact that the work is by no means done and how it will only kind of ramp up from here A lot of designers at the time were still sort of bringing people on to their creative and behind-the-scenes teams.

4:41Now a lot of the collections are hitting stores. We've seen Gucci. We've seen Dior. So the impetus was basically that, yes, the quote-unquote sort of creative reset has happened in terms of the first collections being out. But now it's almost as if the real work starts or at least continues. So, yeah, all the articles kind of look at what phase two or sort of the real reset, if you will, will look like and what it will mean from sort of pricing strategies to marketing strategies to when or if this sort of quote unquote reset will ever really wrap up. What was the most surprising thing you learned reporting those stories?

5:19So mine was on pricing. And obviously brands are never keen to talk to us about pricing. They want to talk about the creative. of. But yeah, I think pricing-wise, what was most interesting to me was that obviously brands are never going to put down their prices, but a lot of people spoke about how this is kind of an opportunity for brands to introduce some lower ticket items than like a$5 ,000 bag. So Michael Ryder, for instance, at Celine has a bag for$2 ,000 something, which not to say that's accessible, but I think by luxury standards these days, more people can buy it. So that I think was sort of my biggest takeaway on the pricing side.

5:55Curious to see if there's a debut you're really excited about this season. There's many. I don't know if this is a cop-out answer, but I'm really keen to see Rachel Scott at Diatima. I know we got a taster last season. We're all very excited. I cannot wait. But yeah, I'm really excited to see it, A, kind of in runway format, and B, just to see her sort of full vision, because I know last season was more of a collaboration with the design team, but It was looking good, so I'm optimistic. Yeah, love her. Okay, Choma, we have lots to discuss in headlines this week. We're going to say bye to Maddie.

6:28It's been a busy week. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. Choma, where were you when you found out Valentino had died? Oh, it was the evening. It was Monday evening. So I was on my way home, and my friend canceled dinner on me because she had to write about it oh wow for the times of london so she was like i'm so sorry but i was like oh gosh yeah of course and she was like do you have a quote and i was like actually i i i feel like it's been an education for me to learn about him in these last few days because i never i never went to any of the shows i didn't meet him um but we were just i was just in in hamish bowls's office our um a wonderful colleague and he's just written a fantastic piece a really comprehensive kind of piece about his life and his work hamish is so remarkably adept at i mean he truly turned that around i emailed hamish right when i found out we were all off for martin luther king jr day but we found out around noon and i emailed hamish and i said so well also because hamish had known valentino for for decades So, Hamish, I'm so sorry for your loss.

7:42And could you write something by tomorrow? And he wrote this beautiful, comprehensive tribute that's extremely touching. But also, I feel like I learned so much about all of, you know, Valentino and Giancarlo Gemetti's relationship and how they first met, which was so romantic. I mean, they were lifelong friends and partners, an incredible partnership. I sort of want to know more about that. In fact, I just kind of left me thinking, wow, like, who has those kind of who has that kind of relationship over the course of their life? I was just speaking to him. It's just like, you know what, all of my Valentino books are actually out in my country house.

8:21So he was writing this kind of I just I just you know because he's he's such an encyclopedia of fashion. But yeah he had to he had to do this without his his like full library. Oh my God. Full fashion library. So very impressed. And such amazing photographs that we found for this and that Hamish references this incredible shoot at Cy Twombly's apartment in Rome with all Valentino sort of embellished white sort of three piece suits and skirt suits. with Mirella Agnelli and Marissa Berenson. I mean, just incredible pieces, this beautiful shot of Mr. Valentino with Diana Freeland, who he adored, and also learning about the way that Valentino came up in the business and where he was sort of studying with French couturiers.

9:15I just, we learned a lot. We also had an amazing interview with Alessandro Michele and has told, too, about his memories of Valentino. Obviously, he is the current designer at the house. And so that I thought was quite touching. 93 as well. I mean, you know, such a long, insanely magical life and moved so many. And yeah. And that the Valentino documentary by Matt Turnhour is really, I think. Oh, I need to see that. You've never seen it? No. Oh, my God. Choma, I feel like that's the most. That's my weekend. That's my weekend. Beloved fashion documentary. And I think it really exposed so many people to the inner workings of the fashion world in a way that people just didn't understand or realize before they saw that.

10:05I thought it's such. Maybe I have seen it. I'm sure you have. Oh, The Last Emperor. Yes, of course. I remember that was such a good doc. But I have to rewatch it because it's been a minute. Okay, so Choma, we are smack dab in the middle of the men's shows in Paris, and they just finished up in Milan. And today, we are recording this on Wednesday afternoon. Today, Jonathan Anderson had this thrilling sophomore men's collection that people are very excited about that had these crazy blonde wigs. And I want to know what you thought about everything so far. And also Pharrell's show was last night.

10:43yeah i mean i love this i'm just kind of i know that also just happens i i don't think the review is up yet and i'm so curious to know i imagine that sarah mo is writing about it um but i looked that first look was like oh so cool to like it's like 2016 or maybe 2010s of what kate moss would have worn to a festival this like glittery kind of vintage inspired top with these skinny faded jeans it just was like so the coolest thing to do on a guy like how i i think he's always kind of playing with our expectations of of what menswear should look like i love that he did all those the shrunken bar jackets but with with kind of cargo denim pants i've been loving the denim he's been doing from the denim skirts of last season that he did for women's and those wonderful kind of patchwork very eccentric looking um coats that have a silk a kind of like a silk shawl over the top and furry calves just like really really cool very cool very very into this men's collection and love how the the men's and women's collections have been in in kind of conversation with each other in this way that's not totally obvious but is definitely there and you're kind of getting to see his Dior emerge and I think he's often really because menswear was where Jonathan Anderson started and and I often feel like his men's collections are just so super strong and yeah definitely and it's such a strong point of view yeah he's just like the equivalent of being ambidextrous being able to design men's and women's with the same kind of level of fluency so yeah super into it can't wait to sort of hear what it was like to be in the room and what the to get sarah's take on it and then i think that the prada show everybody's been talking about that prada show um actually let me cycle back because you mentioned louis vuitton and i thought that the set design was so fabulous for louis vuitton they basically um created a whole apartment with the most fabulous furniture because obviously i was obsessing about the sofas because sofas are always my obsession because i think that more than a handbag a good sofa is like a lifetime investment so it was really cool to see pharrell and his imagination run wild with with this crazy set and um a really strong collection so that was cool to see and that must have been a been great to be there i'm excited to go it gave me the itch to be in paris again i'm going to couture just for one night only next week to see Chanel and Dior to see Machia's first couture collection.

13:30Oh, fun. I'm so excited to hear the reports. Yeah, yeah. So I'm going to go. I'm going to have lunch with our colleague Fran before. Oh, fun. I'm going to take the early train and then go and see Dior. That will be Jonathan Anderson's first couture collection. And then the next day is Chanel. Oh, so exciting. Nicole is also going. Couture debuts. Oh, great. And yes, everyone should listen to Nicole's great conversation with Sam Hine about the men's shows. And we saw Prada rejecting U.S. corporate masculine power in their show, which had very thin models. And Dolce & Gabbana, which had a very not diverse slate of models.

14:15Obviously, everybody looks to Prada in Milan. It's such a season-defining show. And this season, the silhouette, I think, was really interesting. It was really skinny. It was these very, very slim-cut coats that I think men and women will be wearing. Choma, we have exciting news to share. We are now officially on YouTube. We launched our first episode with Amanda Seyfried on Tuesday, and we will be having more episodes airing regularly. So please stay tuned and subscribe to the Run Through with Vogue podcast on YouTube. And one more thing. We're recording another one of our mailbag episodes next week.

14:59So that means we want your questions. So please, please, please, please, please email us at therunthru at vogue.com. Or you can leave a comment under this episode on Spotify. We'd love to hear from you. And The Run Through will be back with our beauty editors, Margot and Arden, after this short break.

15:30you come to the New Yorker radio hour for conversations that go deeper with people you really want to hear from whether it's Bruce Springsteen or Questlove or Olivia Rodrigo Liz Cheney or the godfather of artificial intelligence Jeffrey Hinton or some of my extraordinarily well-informed colleagues at The New Yorker. So join us every week on The New Yorker Radio Hour, wherever you listen to podcasts.

16:06Hey, hi, Arden and Margot, my favorite ladies. Welcome back to the podcast. Hello, Truma. How has it been a year since our annual beauty and wellness? Like, what do we want to call this? Catch up? Yeah. Update. No, maybe an update. Manifesto. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Because we're going to be talking about some oldies, you know, some resounding trends that are still happening in the beauty and wellness world. But there's also a lot of new stuff to catch you up on. Yeah. Yeah, I was actually today this morning, I was shook. I was shook because I use this, I guess one of the new Samsung watches has a feature where you can put your finger on it and it tells you if you've eaten enough vegetables.

16:53No way. Because it registers your some sort of antioxidants or they've explained it to me. but I was like I was so and because obviously you know I'm very into making sure that 70 % of my diet is plant based and I was they were like you're the only person we've met that has the adequate amount really okay I was gonna say this is a safe space you can tell us you made the vegetable I mean my breakfast is my breakfast has been updated since the last time we spoke wait what is your breakfast looking like now what did everyone have for breakfast well it's like I like knowing Choma's broth intake I feel like you're really good about a delicious broth.

17:34Yeah, my breakfast today was coffee. I'm the bad kid. I'm the bad girl. No, but that's intermittent fasting. We welcome all approaches. Thank you. That is my approach. That's the way I start my day. And what did you have, Choma? Well, a lot more than that. Let me just tell you. Do we really want to get into it here? It's going to take a big chunk of our podcast, but I'm going to go there. I'm going to make it as quick as I can. So I started with a liver cleanse tea, which is a combination of yarrow and wormwood herbs that I make myself.

18:06Then I made myself a miso soup and I added a bit of powdered bone broth and I threw in some seaweed and some shiitake mushrooms. Yum. Then I had a caffeine-free matcha. Oh, caffeine-free. With just the powder. Yeah, it's actually mulberry powder. Listen, I already sound insane. I sound insane and I'm still going. And I also had a wheatgrass shot. Did you make this at home? Are you growing it in wheatgrass? Okay. No, the wheatgrass shot I have in like, I guess they're in frozen packets. So I had that. And then I had what I call my protein-rich porridge, which was because I'm seed cycling, ladies.

18:57I'm in my luteal phase, if you want to know. Oh, okay. So I did a spoonful of sesame seeds, ground sesame seeds, a spoonful of steel-cut oats, a spoonful of powdered almonds, and chia seeds, and maca and a little dash of acai powder, some walnuts, some three Brazil nuts because that lowers your cholesterol. And you need it for selenium, which is one of the hardest. Yeah, but just three. Yeah. Three only. Then some, because I'm seed cycling, I also added sunflower seeds. Then I had pomegranate seeds. Then I had blueberries, raspberries, blackberries. How long does it take? To make all of this? About 20 minutes.

19:51Okay. Some of it I can kind of prepare the night before. And then I just put a little teaspoon full of ghee for some healthy fats. And then I have a spoonful of black seed oil. Oh, black seed oil tastes terrible. I don't know how you do it. I know. That's so impressive, though. Isn't that crazy? I don't even know if we want to make this public because I'm low-key embarrassed about how crazy it is. But it gets me a good rating on a... That's a celebrity morning. You know what I mean? I'm like, that's like you had a private chat. Yes, that's it. This is what fascinates people. People want to know.

20:26People want to know. The obsession with 2016 just in the last couple of weeks and as we like kicked off 2026 is making me think a lot. Like, you know, it's weird that it's been a decade since then now. But like so much has actually changed in that 10 years. And I mean, we knew each other in 2016, Choma. And just thinking about the like there was like wellness was emerging in a way where people were still suspicious about wellness. Yeah, that was when I started at Goop. And people definitely had a reaction when I would tell them that I worked at Goop, whether it was like, that's so cool, I'm so curious about them, or like, not so positive.

21:08And it's funny because so many of those people now are the ones that are leading a parasite cleanse on social media or something. And I'm like, wow, the way the pendulum really swung around on these wellness things, these wellness trends from when I started at Goop to now when I'm here. And I'm talking almost always about the exact same things I was writing about at Goop. It was ahead of its time. Though you will never see a picture of me from 2016. One of our former co-workers who's now at Vanity Fair put up on Instagram, she's, Elise Taylor, was like, I looked broke. My face was bad in 2016.

21:47And I had never related to anything more. Like, you will not be seeing a photo of me with my black choker on because I have an idea of myself I'd like to maintain. And it's not that girl. Yeah, what was your beauty in 2016? I think that mine was like a lot of top knots and side bangs, you know, like it was like top knot side bangs and still glitter. Glitter forever. Glitter eternal. But it never, like none of the contouring hit me. I didn't get that into fake lashes, like kind of like those, like the rise of Kardashian beauty at the time skipped me. no I didn't really I've never really had a strong beauty look I did for a while I did a very strong lip with a it's very 26 maybe it's a little priest 2016 with like a fedora hat something like that you know like we know that I guess this fashion and then I also did I I loved a bit of glitter around the art like a not glitter but gold like it was very Bjork inspired I think Bjork had like like a kind of eyeliner that was like a gold line.

22:56And so I used to do like that for a while. So I just have like a line under my eye. But that was it. I wasn't, I didn't have, I'm actually what, I guess Younger just came back on, are you guys? Love, I do love Younger. Yes, of course. I just binge watched that. And it was like giving me flashbacks to that time in New York and the things people wore and the sort of explosion of tattoos tattoos and that like tattoo parlors in Williamsburg and like there was a time just talking about this and just like the sort of like what is the state of tattoos right now in 2026 I feel so bad I assigned to someone at my last job I feel like I'm the last no I have zero I have zero I'm like kind of scared to confess this my dad used to always tell me I'll always love you but I'll never hesitate to write you out of the will if you get a tattoo.

23:48I don't even think my family knows this about me. I got a tattoo when I was 16. I used a fake ID. Real exclusive. Yeah. In Deep Ellum in Dallas, Texas. Great spot. That's like the very, what could we tell? It's sort of the East Village of Dallas, Choma. Okay. Cool. Very like you see bands play. It was like the first Buffalo Exchange was in Deep Ellen. Yeah. And my body's totally metabolized it. It's like barely there now. Where on your body is it? It's on my side. The classic, like, that would have been 2005, 2006 when I got it. Like, a junior in high school, I got it on my side. I don't know how this person thought.

24:32If you saw a picture of me of a junior in high school, no one thought I was 18. and I thought it was so cool obviously. It's a Hamsa hand which is like a Middle Eastern symbol that protects you but the thing is evil eyes are meant to fall off of you when they have protected you from the big thing so I didn't realize at the time it was like very bad luck to get one permanently tattooed on my body. So I'm glad it's gone. That baby has just taken all of the bad energy and absorbed it I guess. Metabolized it. I'll never get a tattoo again though I dream sort of of getting like a pinup girl tattoo if I was going to get one, but it's, like, not my aesthetic at all.

25:07But I just love, like, old Sailor Jerry tattoos that are, like, pin-up girls and stuff. Vintage lady. Vintage lady. I know. Is it? I mean, I remember when we first started doing tattoo coverage, which seems crazy, but I remember people were so engaged, and obviously I still think, now it's just mainstream, right? Yeah. Are there, like, tattoo trends? Is this a thing? Like, I have no... Well, apparently they're, like, people will do tattoo pop-ups for like, you know, festivals and things. And people just get a tattoo that day, like really cash. Because it's so no big deal. It's so no big deal. It's just like getting a tooth gem.

25:41You know, it's just like, who cares? Like, if you need to get it removed, the Pico laser is, you know, one derm call away. Which I'm like, the Pico laser hurts. I just got that on my face. I have become obsessed with lasers. Hold on, hold on. What is a Pico laser? So it's this nano, nano, nano, tiny laser that was designed to remove tattoos. But then they realized that it was actually really good at removing pigment from your face. So if you have melasma, like I have melasma on my face that I call like my Homer Simpson goatee. Oh, I've got one of those. Yes. I know. It's the lower part of my face.

26:15Exactly. If I let myself get too much sun or if I do too much sauna-ing, which sauna and heat brings it out. If I sit in too many hot baths, it'll just sort of like I'm just Homer Simpson. And the Pico laser will take that. It just blasts it off and it just brings your normal skin tone, you know, back to the surface, basically. And isn't now the time to do all those kinds of things? This is laser season, baby. Correct. The winter, the low light is laser season. When you are not going to the beach, you cannot have a present tan when you get a laser because it affects the laser, seeing the like melanated spots.

26:49Like maybe you have, I have a sunspot every couple of inches it feels like on my face. But last year was my year of lasers. And it's interesting because I posted this picture of all of the work I had done last year on Instagram, like a slideshow. So all of the lasers, then showing the peeling. I mean, I did have injectables last year also, but a lot of stuff. And it was really like showing the imperfectness, trying to get better skin. I would never say perfect skin. But it's funny because it totally aligned with recently we saw, I think it was like the Instagram CEO saying that in the world where we're fighting back against AI, people are going to start posting really, like, revealing their imperfections online, not wanting a perfect background, not wanting.

27:34And this transparency of plastic surgery or work done is also something so big and a huge conversation. Obviously, we have people confessing to facelifts, talking about getting a blepharoplasty. Like, there is this new wave of honesty that I'm finding really excited. Like, when Marc Jacobs admitted he got a facelift, everyone freaked out years ago. That did kind of kick it off and was just documenting along the way. And now it's like everyone's talking about their thing. It's almost like a brag in some ways, but also I find it really nice that at least people are willing to show what they've had done.

28:11And I do think it's like sort of an anti-AI push to be like, I didn't facetune. I did the work to get this done, but also here's how I did it. Interesting take. I do think that some people are still keeping secrets and saying, oh, I didn't do anything. Yeah, I just got a lot of sleep. People who are like, it's water, drive me crazy. I drink a lot of water. Yeah, I mean, like, I drink a lot of water. I have a lot of crazy health things. I mean, and I wouldn't, I think I'd take it to an extreme. I'm at an age where the little things like having a glass of wine really can derail me. So that's why I'm really hyper into these things.

28:53The run-through will be back in a moment.

29:05I do think one of the bright spots of this time of year is awards season because it is a kind of a fun. Hi, I'm Rebecca Ford, senior awards correspondent at Vanity Fair and co-host of Little Gold Men. Oscar season is upon us. Little Gold Men takes you behind the scenes of the race for the biggest prize in Hollywood. There's a hundred wrestlers in the room, but only one can be Oscar nominated. Whether you're a movie lover or an industry buff, Little Gold Men from Vanity Fair has everything you need to know about this year's Oscar race. Follow and listen to Little Gold Men wherever you get your podcasts.

29:47It's sort of like the fun thing that's happening. And I do, I have been enjoying what I've been seeing as far as beauty trends on the red carpet. but I've been loving this old Hollywood hair, for example. And I wanted to get your take on what you've seen so far and how it compares to what you saw on the runway last season. Are there any connections? Because obviously we see a direct link from the fashion trends or the looks that we see appear on the red carpet. But I'm not sure if the same is quite true for beauty because I think people have gotten more conservative or a little bit more like throwback in their beauty lately.