Fashion

In 2021’s West Side Story, Rachel Zegler Will Deliver a Maria for the Moment

We meet the actor on the brink of her biggest year yet….

TIMELINES tend to go askew for Rachel Zegler. “I remember sending an email to the head of admissions at Montclair State University saying, ‘I know this sounds like a lie, but this is what happened, and this is why I can’t attend.’ ”

“What happened” was that the 19-year-old singer and actor, then a musical theater–obsessed high school student, was cast as Maria in Steven Spielberg’s revision of West Side Story. A year earlier, in January 2018, Zegler’s friend Makena Reynolds had shared a casting-call tweet along with a “Thank me when you’re famous” quip. That night, Zegler submitted a homemade video of “I Feel Pretty”—or, as Zegler expressed it, “Me Siento Bonita.” Within weeks she was auditioning.

College has been put on hold, and so too has the film. The movie’s December 2020 release was pushed back a full year in hopes of a post-pandemic cinema debut, leaving Zegler, who wrapped production months ago, to take up some of the same lockdown pastimes as the rest of us: roller-skating, guitar-playing. Zegler, who was raised in Clifton, New Jersey, spent her youth traveling into Manhattan for Broadway shows, and so she’s also been consuming as much virtually accessible culture as possible. “It’s a horrible reality, not being able to have live theater,” she says, “but I really enjoy watching the way entertainment is adapting.” She’s also spending time with her Colombian-American family, which is immeasurably proud of her. In Zegler’s portrayal of Maria (opposite heartthrob Ansel Elgort as Tony), not only is she realizing her own Hollywood dreams but she’s a Latina playing a Puerto Rican migrant—a role famously whitewashed by an artificially bronzed Natalie Wood in the 1961 film adaption. Throughout our conversation, she carefully articulates: It’s “Mah-riya,” not the Anglo “Muh-riya.”

For Zegler, the film serves as “a beautiful display of Latin joy and the way that young Latin girls deserve to see themselves—dancing around in pretty dresses and singing about loving themselves. It’s something that’s mattered so much to me, being Latina—singing ‘I Feel Pretty’ and meaning it. I hope that young people everywhere will know that their features are gorgeous and their culture is beautiful. I think that’s what it’s meant to my family,” she continues. “They know that it’s going to happen.” Another surety? Makena absolutely deserves a thank-you.

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Entertainment

A$AP Rocky Turned An Entire Manchester City Kit Into His Album Rollout

Photo: DannyB Photos / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

A$AP Rocky doesn’t do album rollouts quietly, and this one recruited an entire Premier League club to help. Manchester City, PUMA, and Rocky teamed up on a limited apparel run tied to “Don’t Be Dumb,” his 2026 album, timed around his September 5th show at Co-op Live.

The centerpiece is a long-sleeve PUMA King jersey in black and archive gold, with “DON’T BE DUMB” running down the sleeve and AWGE branding worked in throughout. A bold “MANCHESTER” graphic covers the back. Fans could also add limited “A$AP 11” name-and-number printing onto the club’s actual Home, Away, or Third kits, while supplies lasted at retail.

There’s a players-only version too, and it never went up for sale. That one sticks closer to City’s usual sky-blue identity, with its own sleeve detailing and back graphic — the kind of piece that exists purely because a handful of people got lucky.

The whole rollout kicked off with a one-night pop-up on September 4th, when PUMA turned a spot in Manchester’s Northern Quarter into a pop-up cafe for the night, mixing football, music, and street style into one room before the wider release hit the stadium store the next morning. Some of those jerseys even came with golden tickets to the concert or that Saturday’s match.

Rocky has called the project true to his own design language, and it’s not even his only club collaboration this cycle — a similar drop with AC Milan landed around the same time. At this point, the line between fashion week and matchday has basically disappeared.

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Entertainment

Quavo And Lids Are Going All In On Atlanta With Their New Cap Pack

Photo: Finish Line / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

Quavo has never been shy about his hat obsession, and Lids just gave him another outlet for it. Their new “Atlanta” pack drops September 12th, marking another round in a partnership that’s been running strong since 2019.

The collection is a love letter to the city, spread across three very different caps. One mashes up pinstripes, script lettering, and Braves branding into a single design, working navy, red, white, and light blue into the mix. Another goes the opposite direction entirely — fully iced out in crystal detailing, done up in black and red, with both the Falcons and the Braves showing up in the design. The third strips things back to an old-school “ATL” trucker cap in red, white, and gold, the kind of understated piece that lets the city’s name do the talking.

None of this is new territory for Quavo. He’s talked before about waiting on hat releases as a kid, and that same excitement seems to be what’s kept this partnership going years past most celebrity collabs. His earlier Lids run leaned on one moment — the Braves’ 1995 World Series win — but this pack pulls from the city’s whole sports history instead of just one highlight.

Lids has called Quavo one of the rare voices who can blend music, fashion, and sports without it feeling forced, and this drop backs that up. Given how fast his past releases have moved, Atlanta might want to set an alarm for September 12th.

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