FASHION

Bella Hadid Has a Not-So-Subtle Message for the Paparazzi

“F— You.”


Bella Hadid in Chrome Hearts at LAX in Los Angeles, California, August 2016.

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If her Instagram is any indicator, Bella Hadid’s very best friend is one Jesse Jo Stark, heiress to the Los Angeles Chrome Hearts empire, goddaughter of Cher, a budding musician whose debut was produced by Steve Jones of Sex Pistols fame. So it’s no coincidence that Hadid has appeared in Chrome Hearts campaigns on multiple occasions and is often spotted on the streets in their designs. Now, on the heels of a blowout birthday getaway with Kylie Jenner and company, Hadid is back in Los Angeles, and she’s got the threads from the cult label to show for it. It’s a comfy, travel-ready ensemble, but also one that makes a none-too-subtle statement. This one is a look for the records.

Who: Bella Hadid.

When: Wednesday, August 17.

Where: Just passing through LAX.

What: A black Chrome Hearts hoodie with black distressed jeans, a red plaid shirt, and black biker boots.

Why: She’s nailed the avoiding-the-paparazzi look: eyes covered, head down, pushing through the airport crowds. But here, a standard-issue Chrome Hearts cropped hoodie serves as a direct and outspoken note to bystanders and, no doubt, the paparazzi who flank her wherever she goes. “F— you,” it reads across the hood. Cara Delevingne pioneered this strategy with her paparazzi-deflecting Rochambeau reflective hooded vest and Rita Ora proudly brushed off her haters in Vetements, but Hadid proves that she’s maybe the most irreverent of it all. Just days after her first nude shoot appeared in the pages of Vogue France, she’s making a statement that she’ll do what she likes and she’s not to be messed with. (She’s having fun while she’s doing it, too, it seems — she was captured on camera again moments after entering the airport, this time grinning widely, wearing her irreverence proudly. Her brother and budding model in his own right Anwar was by her side.)

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