Emma Stone Presents 'Le Vaping'
Celebrities: they're just like us! Yes, folks, Emma Stone, star of La La Land, Cruella, and Birdman, also vapes. Can you say Emma Stoned???? (probably not)
Actually, Stone's likely not vaping at all, presumably puffing on an IQOS device instead. Tobacco giant Philip Morris produces the IQOS as a "smoke-free alternative to cigarettes," though the jury's out on whether the heated tobacco you inhale from an IQOS is actually less harmful than cigarette smoke.
But why's this relevant in the first place? Because candid images of famous folks doing regular business has fascinated mankind since time immemorial, and because there's something in Stone's picture that incidentally parallels fashion history.
Indeed, there's something inherently compelling about seeing Emma Stone, 34, casually dressed in her LES NYE best on January 1 — black cap, black blazer, black sweater, black leather shorts to match black leather bag — as if she's any other scenester on the town.
Her vape (or IQOS or whatever) is the cherry on top of an unexpectedly earnest look at Emma Stone's day-to-day.
Let's step back, actually: could you not consider this photo of Emma Stone an incremental, real-world evolution of Helmut Newtown's iconic Le Smoking photo for Yves Saint Laurent?
Crazy? Sure. A total reach? Perhaps. But let's consider.
Here's a stylish person, clearly comfortable in their own skin, wearing the edgy uniform of the day with their take on the smoking accessory du jour. All-black, effortless.
Obviously, there's a massive difference between a poised campaign of boundary-reshaping clothes and a candid photo of a celebrity vaping but is there not something here, even in some small way?
I'm well aware that I'm grasping at straws more than connecting existing throughlines, but I still say Ceci n'est pas une IQOS.