Maira Kalman’s “Stéphane Mallarmé with Shawl”

The artist Maira Kalman has always had an idiosyncratic approach to defining elegance, having co-authored a book titled “(un)Fashion,” and illustrated E. B. White’s “The Elements of Style.” For the cover of the September 22, 2025, Fall Style & Design Issue, she chose to portray the French poet Stéphane Mallarmé. “I spent a year reading French poets with my poetry group,” Kalman said. “Of all the poets, Mallarmé had the most appeal as a person. As for poetry itself, bring on the madness.”

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