Rachel Syme
Rachel Syme, a staff writer, has covered Hollywood, theatre, fashion, television, podcasts, style, and other cultural subjects for The New Yorker since 2012. Her recent work includes profiles of the creators of “PEN15” and the makeup artist Mario Dedivanovic; an homage to the food writer Laurie Colwin; an exploration of “bathfluencers”; an interactive feature on the art of the Hollywood memoir; conversations with Jamie Lee Curtis, Rick Steves, Patti LuPone, Mandy Patinkin, and Barbra Streisand; and profiles of Kirsten Dunst, Cynthia Nixon, and Anna Deavere Smith.
Her cultural criticism and reported features—which focus primarily on the intersections of women’s lives, artistic production, history, and fame—have also appeared in the Times Magazine, Elle, GQ, Grantland, New York, Vogue, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, and The New Republic, among other publications. She is currently writing a nonfiction book called “Magpie” and a coffee-table book about the joys of handwritten correspondence. She grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and now resides in Brooklyn.
Maya Hawke Goes Back to School
The “Stranger Things” actress, and college dropout, explains why she visited her brother at Brown before writing her new studio album, “Chaos Angel.”
Alan Cumming Wants Us All to Let Go
The actor, author, cabaret performer, and host of the hit reality series “The Traitors” says, “I think American people, especially, are slightly ashamed of abandon.”
Iris Apfel Wore Fame Well
Apfel pursued the driving creative project of her life—getting dressed, dazzlingly—for eight decades without any promise of greater glory. How could she ever have seen it coming?
Sofia Coppola’s Path to Filming Gilded Adolescence
There are few Hollywood families in which one famous director has spawned another. Coppola says, “It’s not easy for anyone in this business, even though it looks easy for me.”
Barbra Streisand’s Mother of All Memoirs
In “My Name Is Barbra,” the icon takes a maximalist approach to her own life, studying every trial, triumph, and snack food of a six-decade career.
Nanci Griffith’s Lone Star State of Mind
The late singer-songwriter rarely felt at home either in her native Texas or in the music industry, but her nostalgic ditties of girlhood captured a potent sense of place.
How Thom Browne’s Gray Suit Conquered American Fashion
The designer’s eccentric tailoring has long had a cult following. Now it’s filtering into the mainstream.
Soak and the City
New Yorkers don’t need wellness culture to sell them on the ancient art of communal bathing.
Why Sarah Jessica Parker Keeps Playing Carrie Bradshaw
In all of her professional endeavors, including the “Sex and the City” franchise, Parker considers herself a “bitter ender.”
Bill Hader Just Wants to Make Weird Things
The co-creator and star of the HBO comedy “Barry” on the end of the series, his film-nerd past, and why he has no desire to be part of “the conversation.”
The Met Gala’s Reverential, Cat-Forward Karl Lagerfeld Looks
This year’s event featured plenty of gemstones, puffy fabrics, feathers, black leather, evening gloves, and homages to the late fashion designer’s feline friend.
The Profound Surfaces of Preston Sturges
For the filmmaker and master of the screwball comedy, how we presented ourselves was far more interesting than our inner feelings.
Boygenius’s “Record” of Friendship and Mutual Obsession
The first full-length album from Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus evinces a preëmptive nostalgia for the honeymoon phase of creative collaboration.
The Carlyle Goes Smell-o-Rama
A self-taught nose, who with his wife founded D.S. & Durga, has spun perfume, candles, and profits from scents like wet pavement and, now, a hotel.
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Secretaries and the City
Reading Rona Jaffe’s “The Best of Everything” sixty-five years later.
Jane Lynch, Born Not to Serve
The actor, now starring in the reboot of “Party Down,” strolls around Central Park with a pal and details why she wasn’t cut out for catering.
Spring Television Preview
“Succession” unveils its final season, Rachel Weisz plays psychotic twin gynecologists in “Dead Ringers,” Ali Wong and Steven Yeun star in “Beef,” and more.
Shooting Your Shot with Hilary Duff
The star of “How I Met Your Father” takes a flower-arranging class with Tasha Muresan, a D.M.-sliding florist turned friend.
Kate Berlant Has Nothing to Confess
The comedian, whose one-woman show is back until mid-February, says, of performing onstage, “I always felt incredibly myself up there when I was never talking about myself.”
How Much Netflix Can the World Absorb?
Bela Bajaria, who oversees the streaming giant’s hyper-aggressive approach to TV-making, says success is about “recognizing that people like having more.”
Maya Hawke Goes Back to School
The “Stranger Things” actress, and college dropout, explains why she visited her brother at Brown before writing her new studio album, “Chaos Angel.”
Alan Cumming Wants Us All to Let Go
The actor, author, cabaret performer, and host of the hit reality series “The Traitors” says, “I think American people, especially, are slightly ashamed of abandon.”
Iris Apfel Wore Fame Well
Apfel pursued the driving creative project of her life—getting dressed, dazzlingly—for eight decades without any promise of greater glory. How could she ever have seen it coming?
Sofia Coppola’s Path to Filming Gilded Adolescence
There are few Hollywood families in which one famous director has spawned another. Coppola says, “It’s not easy for anyone in this business, even though it looks easy for me.”
Barbra Streisand’s Mother of All Memoirs
In “My Name Is Barbra,” the icon takes a maximalist approach to her own life, studying every trial, triumph, and snack food of a six-decade career.
Nanci Griffith’s Lone Star State of Mind
The late singer-songwriter rarely felt at home either in her native Texas or in the music industry, but her nostalgic ditties of girlhood captured a potent sense of place.
How Thom Browne’s Gray Suit Conquered American Fashion
The designer’s eccentric tailoring has long had a cult following. Now it’s filtering into the mainstream.
Soak and the City
New Yorkers don’t need wellness culture to sell them on the ancient art of communal bathing.
Why Sarah Jessica Parker Keeps Playing Carrie Bradshaw
In all of her professional endeavors, including the “Sex and the City” franchise, Parker considers herself a “bitter ender.”
Bill Hader Just Wants to Make Weird Things
The co-creator and star of the HBO comedy “Barry” on the end of the series, his film-nerd past, and why he has no desire to be part of “the conversation.”
The Met Gala’s Reverential, Cat-Forward Karl Lagerfeld Looks
This year’s event featured plenty of gemstones, puffy fabrics, feathers, black leather, evening gloves, and homages to the late fashion designer’s feline friend.
The Profound Surfaces of Preston Sturges
For the filmmaker and master of the screwball comedy, how we presented ourselves was far more interesting than our inner feelings.
Boygenius’s “Record” of Friendship and Mutual Obsession
The first full-length album from Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus evinces a preëmptive nostalgia for the honeymoon phase of creative collaboration.
The Carlyle Goes Smell-o-Rama
A self-taught nose, who with his wife founded D.S. & Durga, has spun perfume, candles, and profits from scents like wet pavement and, now, a hotel.
Secretaries and the City
Reading Rona Jaffe’s “The Best of Everything” sixty-five years later.
Jane Lynch, Born Not to Serve
The actor, now starring in the reboot of “Party Down,” strolls around Central Park with a pal and details why she wasn’t cut out for catering.
Spring Television Preview
“Succession” unveils its final season, Rachel Weisz plays psychotic twin gynecologists in “Dead Ringers,” Ali Wong and Steven Yeun star in “Beef,” and more.
Shooting Your Shot with Hilary Duff
The star of “How I Met Your Father” takes a flower-arranging class with Tasha Muresan, a D.M.-sliding florist turned friend.
Kate Berlant Has Nothing to Confess
The comedian, whose one-woman show is back until mid-February, says, of performing onstage, “I always felt incredibly myself up there when I was never talking about myself.”
How Much Netflix Can the World Absorb?
Bela Bajaria, who oversees the streaming giant’s hyper-aggressive approach to TV-making, says success is about “recognizing that people like having more.”