OF THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE
Vogue US|August 2024
There's no proper job description for the first lady. So Dr. Jill Biden has shaped the role to who she is: a listener, a teacher, an immensely talented advocate. This campaign, she's working harder than ever.
Maya Singer
OF THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE

If you want to know what power feels like, try to get yourself driven around in a motorcade. Flashing police chaperone lights form a perimeter as you blaze down an empty highway, waiting cars backed up on entry ramps as you pass. It's as if the world is holding its breath. For you. Also, rules don't apply: On a cool spring day, driving down suburban Minneapolis side streets, we run red lights and whip round curves so fast I can barely take in the commonplace American view. Tract housing, big-box stores, churches, office parks, semiindustrial no-man's-land. Finally, we arrive at our destination, Nine Mile Brewing, in Bloomington, Minnesota. "Let's go, let's go, let's go," commands someone-a Secret Service agent, maybe-as the motorcade pulls into a loading dock. Politics, I will come to discover in the next few days, involves a lot of backstage spaces: service entrances, freight elevators, places where Very Important People can slip in and out of events unnoticed. Politics also involves a lot of comically fast walking-to wit, at Nine Mile, an entourage of 30 or so are noisily hustling to follow a trim, blond woman in a pristine white suit as she strides nonchalantly past clanging, gurgling brewing vats, aiming for a back office. This is my first glimpse of first lady Dr. Jill Biden: Exiting the sealed chamber of power into the middle of America, a vision of calm amid utter cacophony.

This story is from the August 2024 edition of Vogue US.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the August 2024 edition of Vogue US.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM VOGUE USView All
Trust Your Gut - New at-home biome tests offer insight into the microorganisms that rule much more than just our stomachs.
Vogue US

Trust Your Gut - New at-home biome tests offer insight into the microorganisms that rule much more than just our stomachs.

According to a publication called Nutrition in Clinical Practice, these days, internet searches for "gut microbiome" and "gut microbiota" generate millions of results. Amazon teems with microbiome books, including microbiome books for kids- Meena and the Microbiome (forthcoming in 2025) and dogs- Healthy Gut, Healthy Dog. Gut health is taking over TikTok. Scan your refrigerator for the word "probiotic". Brands are shilling directly to your bacteria!

time-read
8 mins  |
September 2024
The First Wild Garden - A new book celebrates the historic English garden that launched a modern movement.
Vogue US

The First Wild Garden - A new book celebrates the historic English garden that launched a modern movement.

Without naming the most grotesque examples of tree mutilation in England, it is clear that much beauty is lost in our gardens by the stupid and ignorant practice of cutting trees into unnatural shapes,” wrote the Victorian-era gardener William Robinson in Gravetye Manor: Or Twenty Years’ Work round an Old Manor House (1911). Robinson’s fighting words were laid out in the preface to his book, an account of the decades he spent creating his garden at the Elizabethan house of Gravetye Manor in Sussex, England, and recently reproduced in facsimile by Rizzoli alongside stunning contemporary photographs.

time-read
3 mins  |
September 2024
Clean Sweep- Two seasons into her tenure at Carven, Louise Trotter is reimagining the label with pieces at once mindful, freeand beautiful.
Vogue US

Clean Sweep- Two seasons into her tenure at Carven, Louise Trotter is reimagining the label with pieces at once mindful, freeand beautiful.

Two seasons into her tenure at Carven, Louise Trotter is reimagining the label with pieces at once mindful, freeand beautiful. In February of last year, Trotter took up the role of creative director at the 79-year-old maison, reawakening it from a five-year slumber, and a chauffeur—customary for an artistic director at the helm of a Parisian fashion house—simply doesn’t fly with her bluff Sunderland upbringing.

time-read
6 mins  |
August 2024
Testament of Youth
Vogue US

Testament of Youth

In a new production of Romeo and Juliet, Jack Antonoff, Rachel Zegler, Kit Connor, and Sam Gold transform a classic into a timely, urgent work.

time-read
7 mins  |
September 2024
GLOWING UP FAST
Vogue US

GLOWING UP FAST

I’m slick as an otter. I’m greased up like a Thanksgiving turkey

time-read
6 mins  |
September 2024
TIME'S ARROW
Vogue US

TIME'S ARROW

A celebrated Broadway-bound play by Jez Butterworth, The Hills of California, captures the youthful ambitions and dashed dreams of a quartet of English sisters.

time-read
9 mins  |
September 2024
The Shape of Things
Vogue US

The Shape of Things

Annabelle Selldorf has built a soaring career on gentle interventions, subtle forms—a design language of elegance and restraint. Dodie Kazanjian meets the architect of our moment.

time-read
10 mins  |
September 2024
SWING SHIFT
Vogue US

SWING SHIFT

With the election of their lifetimes looming on the horizon, eight models— each of them with ties to a battleground state—tell us what’s important to them, what they’re fighting for, where they’re voting, and how they’re finding value and purpose in uneasy times.

time-read
7 mins  |
September 2024
Walk This Spray
Vogue US

Walk This Spray

Scented runways are the latest merger of perfume and fashion

time-read
3 mins  |
September 2024
Hidden Gems
Vogue US

Hidden Gems

With its timeworn cities and sweeping seascapes, the Southern Italian region of Basilicata is rich with splendors.

time-read
2 mins  |
September 2024