There's a photograph out there of Emily Ratajkowski. It's a paparazzi shot, taken on a sunny day, a New York street painting a tableau behind her, leafy trees and grey pavement twisting contrapposto. Like the thousands of these images of Ratajkowski inked onto the internet – the 32-year-old looking effortless and chic, her husky-German shepherd mix Colombo trotting happily beside her – it wound up on Instagrams and websites alike, her outfit shared to be dissected. Vogue Australia included. And, like all those other photos that exist in that strange parasocial void, we have no idea of the truth behind it.
“The [news] that I was splitting from my ex had just gone public,” says Ratajkowski. “And I was walking to meet him and it was an extremely emotional experience and so personal. And I was being papped and I just didn't even register it. I was thinking about how absolutely insane that is – that I'll remember what I was wearing for the rest of my life. I was wearing a red dress. And that there's photos of that on the internet that nobody even has the context for. But I do.”
Ratajkowski and I are sitting inside Palais de Tokyo, a brutalist monolith of a museum in Paris. She's freshly offstage from her appearance at Kérastase's Power Talks event, where, in her capacity as a brand ambassador, she has spent the morning listening to poetry readings by Ebonee Davis and Rupi Kaur (she loves listening to it, although she “wouldn't dare” write poetry herself) and bandying dating stories back and forth with host and TikTok star Amelia Dimoldenberg. (A key message: always let your date pay the bill). Now, she's reclined on a faded leather couch, taking a moment, a plate of tiny burgers balanced in front of her. On top of her black Marc Jacobs mini-dress and jacket, a length of pink tulle is wound around her throat, making her dark hair glint in the sunlight.
