Well, InStyle basically chose my adjective for me. This cover IS glorious. I’d been procrastinating starting this piece for a while, and then BOOM, turns out the piece wrote itself.
The subscriber cover is also grabby…
… but I’m terribly sad that it cuts off what you can see if you click into the story itself, which is that this appears to be a completely crackers catsuit that ends in matching sneakers. At least, I think they’re sneakers. They also have an aura of being couture shoe covers, like the ones you put over your real kicks when you’re in a hospital. Her face in the shot is still arresting, and since it’s a subscriber cover, the aesthetic can more easily lean unusual. But the choice of newsstand cover is absolutely right. It’s not even a contest.
The story is efficient and interesting, with nuggets dropped in that I did NOT expect — she has grappled with a porn and sex addiction, which she mentions practically in passing — and has one of those truly great kickers:
As we wind down our conversation, it occurs to me that Day actually knows exactly who she’s supposed to be in this particular season she’s in — one of purpose and growth, beauty and complexity, and the fierce agency of a Black woman who has arrived. “Somebody was trying to tell me the other day, ‘Just make sure you don’t get typecast, because you don’t want to always be playing the powerful Black woman.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I do. I also am one.’ “
I can just imagine how that reporter felt during the interview, hearing this, and knowing immediately that she had her button. Knowing your subject absolutely helped you stick the landing makes the journey there feel a LOT more guided, and is incredibly exhilarating.
