Gabriella Karefa-Johnson
“You can learn so much about a place through its style”
From Senegalese surf chic to the Parisian vintage scene, you can get to know a place by its style, says fashion editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson. She shares her favorite fashion destinations
As a stylist and fashion editor, you wouldn’t expect Gabriella Karefa-Johnson to choose Paris as a bucket-list destination, given that she’s there twice a year for Fashion Week. But she rarely gets to see more than her hotel room. “I’d love to actually enjoy the city, not be running around in the back of a car all the time. I don’t think I’ve ever been on a proper vacation there,” she says.
Now 32, Karefa-Johnson became the first Black woman to style an American Vogue cover in 2021 and has dressed the likes of Vice President Kamala Harris and tennis legend Serena Williams. It’s been 12 years since her first, memorable trip for the magazine—as a fashion assistant, shooting a supermodel in Paris.
“We were on the roof of the Palais Garnier shooting this incredible picture where she stood next to a statue and the wind was blowing her skirt. My job was to make sure the skirt didn’t hit the ground. So I was on the edge of this building, looking at a panoramic view of Paris, and the only thing I could focus on was this damn skirt, all the time thinking, ‘It cannot hit the ground or I’ll lose my job.’ By the end of that trip, I thought, ‘I can do this.’”
That was, until the flight home. “I cut it too close, missed the baggage cut-off, and got stranded in Charles de Gaulle airport with the trunks. It was my first big mistake in the fashion industry. But it’s OK. I survived.”
Her job has taken her all around the world, giving her a unique lens through which to see a city’s cultural scene, from the influential surf style in Senegal to Tokyo’s ultra-specialized thrift stores. It’s an underrated way to get to know a destination, as fashion can reveal so much about a country’s history, culture, and attitude. (And all that travel has also made her appreciate something else that she believes is hugely underrated: “I’m a fan of airplane food,” she insists. “I would eat it at my house.”)
Spending half her life running around the world’s great cities in the name of fashion means Karefa-Johnson prefers a gentler pace on vacation. “A beach, a lounge chair, a frozen cocktail and earphones in—don’t talk to me for five days. It’s decompression. My vacation is about minimal movement,” she says.
Gabriella Karefa-Johnson’s travel tips
Find ways to discover a place
“I don’t have time to explore places, but Paris is a city where I look out the car window and things catch my eye. That’s how I found Thankx God I’m a V.I.P., my favorite vintage store. The entire store is color coordinated and has amazing leathers and shearlings. I try to make every moment a moment of discovery. If I’m outside a fashion show, I look around to see where the best place on the Seine is to sit, or the best pizza in a piazza in Milan, or the best pub trivia night in London. You find things without actively seeking them.”
A cultural guide to Paris
Seek out unlikely fashion destinations
“There’s nothing cooler than an American cowboy, and New Mexico has amazing Western wear and incredible jewelry. It’s almost like a time capsule stylistically; you feel like you’re shopping the best 1990s style—there is a real grunge vibe to their thrift stores. They also have the best cocktail in the world, a St. Rita. It’s a margarita but with Saint Germain, a French elderflower liqueur. Truly divine.”
Bag the best thrift buys
“I love proper thrift—thank God so many people don’t like fashion, because they had no idea what they had and now I got it for 59 cents. Every fashion capital has incredible thrift and vintage stores. Paris has a big market called Les Puces (literally ‘The Fleas’) with amazing, well-curated vintage. In Shinjuku or Harajuku in Tokyo, you’ll find everything from a dedicated old rap T-shirt store to a traditional geta sandal. I go to the back of the store and work my way to the front, because they put the flashy stuff in the front, but the back is where you find the real gems.”
A cultural guide to Tokyo
Find skincare bargains
“A French pharmacy is like the most iconic medi-spa in the world. It’s the best for over-the-counter face creams and serums. I always buy Homeoplasmine by Boiron, which is basically a Vaseline, so it’s a lip gloss, an eye highlighter, a blush mixture—truly the stuff of legends.”
Get to know the culture
“My family is Sierra Leonean, and West Africa is so vibrant. I did a photo shoot in Senegal about the way surf culture is depicted as a White culture, but some of the best surfers and some of the best breaks in the world are West African. We went to an amazing fish restaurant perched above this cove, where surfers jump off the veranda into the water. Surf style that people attribute to Americans came from there. It’s a freaking coolness, and it’s doing a lot with a little. And then the women! My God, the regalia they wear day to day. Give it up for the ladies of Senegal.”
Gabriella Karefa-Johnson’s favorite fashionable hotels
Lara Kilner is a lifestyle journalist who has contributed to The Times, The Telegraph, and more. She has traveled extensively through five continents, but her most memorable trip was the one on which she met her Malaysian husband.
