“I cry every day,” says Soko, blinking her orange-flecked hazel eyes. She’s talking about baring her emotions for the camera, but even here, sitting cross-legged on an outdoor couch in Los Angeles’ Mount Washington neighborhood, the Bordeaux, France-born actress looks on the verge of tears.

The blurred boundary between Soko’s art and personal life extends to her music—post-punk brood-rock delivered in the same gravelly tenor as her speaking voice, forever sounding one short breath away from collapse. Her sophomore full-length, My Dreams Dictate My Reality, out March 3, is a stripped-down tribute to oldschool indie rock, with raw vocals, bruised guitar riffs, and chugging percussion. Produced by Ross Robinson (The Cure, Slipknot) and featuring cameos by Ariel Pink and Warpaint’s Stella Mozgawa, it’s a refreshing wash of unveiled sentiment and harsh feedback. As Soko puts it, “When I’m on the microphone, I’m vomiting emotions.”

The platinum, moppyhaired singer (née Stéphanie Sokolinski) has been nomadic since she left home for Paris at 15 to pursue acting. After stops in London, Seattle, and New York, the now 29-year-old landed in Los Angeles, where she’s bounced around for the past few years, rooming with friends or staying at her producer’s recording studio. “I didn’t want to have responsibilities other than making music, touring, and going on adventures,” she says. It was during this period that she recorded her popular stream-of-consciousnessesque track “I’ll Kill Her.”

Between coping with the loss of her father at age five and supporting herself in her mid-teens, Soko’s had to grow up fast, but you don’t get the sense that her youth is far behind her. Not only does the petite beauty still get carded, her look today is especially gamine: a mustard buttonup, an oversize moto jacket, a Mondrian-inspired skirt she found at Goodwill for $3, and a pair of frilly white socks with Mishka creepers. “I was always the weird bird,” she says, fidgeting with her layered silver chains.

The singer’s expressive vulnerability was one of the reasons she landed the voice role of Isabella in Spike Jonze’s Her—that and the fact that she’s friends with the director. “I had to do a lot of crying and bring up the drama—he knows I do that really well,” she says with a laugh.

We asked Soko to roam the SoHo streets and barrage innocent passerbys with questions about their last kiss. It's hilarious, funny, and, of course, adorable.

Soko’s current source of real stress: deciding whether she’s going to self-release her new album in America or keep searching for a U.S. label. She had her pick of majors earlier this year after accidentally breaking the top 10 with “We Might Be Dead by Tomorrow” from her 2012 debut album, I Thought I Was an Alien. The fragile love song backed L.A. fashion label Wren’s “First Kiss” video—and played a big part in its going viral. “I had all of these labels wanting to sign me for the wrong reasons,” says Soko. “It was exciting, but it’s the Internet. You’re high one day and the next you’re nobody again. I’m not attached to things like that.”

Instead, she’s putting her energy into making a home in Los Angeles. Her first planned purchase? A record player. “I’m going to get all of my favorite albums on vinyl,” says Soko. “The Cure, The Smiths, Nico, Velvet Underground, Talking Heads, Wire, The Clash, Ramones—all the classics.”

Did Netflix just pull a Beyoncé? Yesterday, the streaming service/fledgling TV network announced it was dumping season three of House of Cards onto its site on February 27. But now—like, right this second—season three in its entirety is available to stream, as discovered by The Verge. Either they made a massive mistake and someone there is getting fired, or they just trolled us. Hard. Here is a screengrab to prove it. This story will be updated once Netflix reveals whether it totally messed up or changed the streaming game as we know it.

Update: Netflix pulled it! It's gone. We hope an intern didn't just get screamed at. While our digital director Leila can still apparently still see the first episode in her account (and you are free to drop by our office to watch it), the season has disappeared as quickly as it appeared. We swear it happened, though. 

Azealia Banks has just confirmed that she's Playboy's next cover star for their April issue. The spread, shot by Ellen von Unwerth for the magazine's music issue, is out on newsstands on March 20th. And judging by the teaser Banks tweeted earlier today, so far so good.

The rapper is giving us feline vibes as she peaks out from behind a leopard-print couch with a stellar cat-like headpiece from Chromat that brings the fashion. Peep the photo below and don't forget to grab the issue when it hits newsstands.

There are moments of laughter in Fifty Shades Of Grey, where the camera winks at the audience and simultaneously acknowledges the script's hamfisted treatment of sex-talk, plus our own discomfort at hearing such clunky dialogue flop about the screen. These are the two kinds of chuckles during the film. Fifty Shades Of Grey, the book, has been read by tens of millions people—which is surprising because the text veers from being simply not very good to something that feels like it is written as a parody of itself. (For instance, the usage of the phrase "inner goddess" is employed frequently, as a stand in for Anastasia's sexual desire, as in, “My inner goddess sits in the lotus position looking serene except for the sly, self-congratulatory smile on her face," which is a real sentence in a real book that was really written.) The movie, then, finds itself being better than it has any right to be—but that doesn't make it good, or even problem-free.

Much was made about the lead actress, Dakota Johnson (daughter of Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith) not being the right fit to play Anastasia Steele. And, truth be told, she isn't... And that may be the best part of the film. Fifty Shades started as a Twilight fan-fiction, and the similarities between Christian and Ana/Edward and Bella are pronounced. He's cultured and endlessly pursuing; she's virginal, afraid, helplessly attracted to him, and just the perfect blank slate for the reader to use the character as a stand-in for herself, or own desires. But Johnson-as-Steele is a bit different than Stewart-as-Bella: Sure, she bites her lip just as much as KStew, but she also does other things too, like looks reasonably flushed when she's turned on, convincingly channels the aforementioned "inner goddess," ribs Christian for being so serious, and finds herself struggling between her attraction to Christian and her fear of him, too. She is a character charged with self-discovery—one who is beginning to put into her own words what she does and doesn't like, what she does and doesn't want. Which makes her a different sort of creature from her book iteration. 

This is where the film both succeeds and stalls, and this is where the film differs from the book. In the book, Anastasia Steele is certainly intrigued by Christian's proposition—which includes signing a contract that bids and bans her from doing, eating, and wearing specific things—but she is also deeply disturbed, and much of her motivation is to please him. To quote the book:

He hits me again … this is getting harder to take. My face hurts, it’s screwed up so tight. He strokes me gently and then the blow comes. I cry out again.

“No one to hear you, baby, just me.”

And he hits me again and again. From somewhere deep inside, I want to beg him to stop. But I don’t. I don’t want to give him the satisfaction. 

In an evocative piece on consent in Fifty Shades by The Atlantic's Emma Green, Green writes, "(The above section) an emotional bargain—Ana tolerates it, barely, because she’s scared of what will happen if she doesn’t. She can't tell Christian she doesn’t want to be spanked—she's too shy, and her relationship with him is dependent on his power to both widen her sexual horizons and get whatever kind of sex he wants from her. But even though she ostensibly consented to this interaction, it seems like a thin kind of consent." In order to understand exactly how crucial communication is to S&M, and also how its practice isn't necessarily violent or perverse, we spoke with professional dominatrix Shana Vaughan-Gabor. She says, "There is a reason you outline these thing in an outside, sober setting. A contract is a living document, it can change—and when your relationship is sex-based, it is all the more important," she says. 

The film cuts out this kind of dialogue, and while we see Dakota Johnson's nervous ticks and deep breaths, Christian does not, and when she firmly says no, he listens. In the best scene of the film, Christian and Ana debate the contract which he asks her to sign, where she employs familiar S&M terms like, "hard limits." Anal and vaginal fisting are off limits. Dildos and vibrators are okay. And, inner goddess, what the heck is a butt-plug? (Many laughs, for that one.) Here, Christian and Ana are doing something that is crucial in the movie, and, according to S&M professional Vaughan-Gabor, crucial to enjoying your limits: Communicating. Ana seems particularly intrigued and not at all afraid. In fact, despite how sexually charged the scene is, she abruptly leaves, demonstrating to Christian that a girl with free-will may be something he is interested in after all. 

But the film—and by extension, the book—wants it both ways. It wants Anastasia to be intrigued and turned on by Christian's "singular tastes," because it wants us to be intrigued and turned on. But it also wants to provide a narrative of romance, and here is the key issue of the film: It suggests that a dominant/submissive relationship is devoid of affection or love, and that the desire to dominate comes from past trauma, which, according to professional dominatrices, is simply untrue. The reason that Christian is interested in submission and dominance is not because of a kink or a sexual desire, but because he was abused in his past, subjected to torment, and kept in a sexually abusive relationship with "Mrs. Robinson" for six years. Oh, and he hates his mother. Not because, say, he was interested in feeling pain. No, his kink comes from something deeper that can be fixed, something Vaughan-Gabor prickles at. "This is such a sore point for the community. For most people, they just have a fetish. You do not have to be intrinsically damaged."

courtesy of universal

"Not all BDSM relationships include pain, and typically the ones that do also include a variety of other activities," says Vaughan-Gabor. "I think pain has two elements. First, there is a chemistry behind it. It's a matter of taste. A little slap causes a tingle, and more creates a physical high as your body floods with endorphins. Your conscious state is altered. That is referred to as 'sub-space.' Pain as release is also a common human practice and like so many things it's up to how an individual uses/abuses an element. Secondly, it reflects the psychological act of dominance or submission. We find power dynamic is every aspect of our lives. This is an acute exploration of what it means to trust someone that much. Some people can achieve orgasm solely from the pain experience," Vaughan-Gabor explains. 

Orgasm, in case your interest was that explicit, is exactly what Ana does. The sex in Fifty Shades is filmed in a very familiar way to that of a romance film: Lots of edits, swelling music (side note: The soundtrack is awesome), mood lighting. It isn't raunchy, even though there sure is a lot of nipple. This feels much "sexier" and less explicit than the book, where she seems to be "quickening" on every page (yes, that does mean what you think it means). At least, here, we actually get to see her convincingly reach climax. And the scenes where he teases/intros her to S&M, she seems to be wildly enjoying herself. The sex is mostly conventional, and while the average theater-going audience might blush at watching Ana get spanked (which she does), it seems to be handled with a sort of affection—and it excites her too. Except, the film seems to chafe under that enjoyment, unsure of what to do with it, and, aside from a grueling end scene which seems to come out of nowhere, the tension feebly builds to a whimper. 

Director Sam Taylor-Wood did too good of a job in her rendition: She gives Ana a stronger, more powerful voice, she made the consent more explicit, she allows Ana to enjoy the sex she was having—except for one particularly notable scene, in which Ana definitively draws the line. Yet, the curse of the film is that it is still grounded in a very problematic story, one that assumes Christian's interest in S&M means he is the perfect wounded creature for Ana to innocently nurse and that his "singular tastes" exclude him from feeling any sort of emotional connection, which is generally an incorrect assumption, says Vaughan-Gabor. Because Ana is never truly afraid of Christian (thankfully, under Taylor-Wood's direction), the explosive ending feels out of place, and the film ends up being a compilation of two people thinking about having sex, having sex, riding in an airplane, and then not having sex. 

Everyone knows the red carpet is for striking poses in fancy dresses, but it can also be a place where famous people tip the world off to how in love they are. Public expressions of true love are mercurial to begin with, but on a red carpet, with so many flashbulbs popping off, it's bound to be captured. Here's proof. 

Hallmark cards and candy hearts are all well and good, but you know what really gets us swooning this time of year? Satin, lace, and tulle. In general, underpinnings make us feel fine as hell, but especially on Valentine's Day. Of course, not all of us have the financial wherewithal to spring for the likes of La Perla. And slightly more affordable options, like Victoria’s Secret, can just feel so… obvious. But “sexy” doesn’t always have to equate with the same old leopard-print push-ups. Whether you’re into bombshell balconettes, feather-light sheers, or lots and lots of lace, there’s a crush-worthy bra for every style out there. No, really, every style. You just have to know where to look. 

Blush Soft Seduction Demi Bra $46

Light-as-a-feather lace meets structured shaping in this gorgeous underwire by Blush. We love it for the scalloping, the supportive panels, and the striking pine-green palette. Romance and retro, unite.

Tatiana's Threads Black Scalloped Lace Bralette, $33

The handmade underpinnings coming out of this San Diego-based studio are so jaw-droppingly gorgeous, it’s hard to choose just one. But this wide-strapped, halter-style lace bralette—equal parts retro and romantic—made our hearts skip a beat. Pretty sure we won’t be the only ones feeling that way.

Choux Bond Demi Bra, $29

A strappy cage-style steal at $29, this ruby-red stunner is perfect for channeling your inner Pussy Galore. Spring for the matching garter skirt for maximum femme-fatale effect.

Only Hearts Coucou Lola Bralette, $46

The sweet Swiss dots, delicate chiffon, and bow closure may look sweet, but the peek-a-boo cups keep this bralette far from girl-next-door territory. Never did a nip slip look so damn good.

Helen Kukovski Lace Triangle Bralette, $25

On her Etsy bio, this designer writes that the reason she began making her own lingerie was because she could never find garments that were a) sexy (without being made from synthetic materials), and b) natural and comfortable (without looking like grandma undies). This wispy, barely-there bralette, gussied up with pretty floral appliques, hits the mark on all three accounts.

Intimately Shimmy Shimmy Ya Bra, $38

Crimson lace, a muted gray-blue mesh trim, and a sweet longline silhouette make this simple slip-over bralette ideal for Valentine’s Day mornings spent with coffee and canoodling in bed.

CLO Malla Shelf Underwire Bra, $48

Lace and frills not your thing? This black tulle bra from CLO Intimo might be more suited to your likings: modern, clean, and minimalist, but bedecked with the teeniest of decorative hearts.

Parfait Charlotte Dusty Rose Balconette Bra, $42.75

Voluptuous types whose assets can’t be contained by a dainty bralette: This retro balconette is made for buxom babes like you. Its structured satin cups, tiny accent bows and black contrast piping make for pinup perfection fit for the likes of Bettie Page. Cue the wolf whistles.

Felina Black Bow Rue Fauvet Bra, $48

Lace. Boning. Bows. Velvet. What could possibly make this vintage-inspired bra any more appealing? Oh, right: glitter.

If you ask Stoya what she does for a living, her stock response is: “Google it...but not at work.” In a short, 10-words-or-less description, Stoya has sex, on film, for money. Yes, she is a “porn star,” but that is only one of her many descriptors—which also include director, activist, sex educator, columnist, feminist, New York Times contributor, artist, and lover of cats. All of these—except maybe the cat part—are also done, generally, for money. (Cats, sadly, don’t pay.)

Stoya is interested in all aspects of sexuality. For her, the porn we consume is the visual embodiment of the various kinks that turn us on. She explains, “Sometimes a thing needs to be said in a thousand-word essay, and sometimes it needs to be said in an 80-minute explicit film.” A homeschooled child of a second-wave feminist, she went straight for the jugular of female objectification: the sex industry. And though the Gloria Steinems of the world might have a problem with calling what she does “enlightened,” she points out that this is precisely what feminism teaches: Women should be able to do what they want, even if that means doing porn.

As a person who speaks very frankly about pulling back the curtain on porn and exposing the realities of sex (i.e., it is messy), she told us about the three “super-sexy” lingerie options that, in reality, are big fails. Take it from the pro and save yourself the trouble this Valentine’s Day.

The Ouvert
“Ouvert in French means open, and in the context of lingerie, it’s a fancy word for crotchless. In theory, these knickers are all the decadence of decorative undergarments with all the access of nudity. In practice, the opening in the gusset almost never lines up with the parts you might want to put your appendages on.”

Stockings with a garter belt
“While standing, the lines of the belt, garter straps, and stocking tops frame one of the curviest parts of a body in an aesthetically gorgeous way. When horizontal, they become a nylon-and-lace, full-body Chinese finger trap. Which actually sounds pretty awesome if you or your partner(s) are into light bondage....”

Edible anything
“Even if you knitted them yourself, edible panties are a bland, waxy-textured, highly efficient yeast infection delivery system. Nobody wins, aside from the manufacturer and the doctor who dishes out the Diflucan.”

Céline Sciamma’s Girlhood is the coming-of-age tale of Marieme, a young resident of Paris’s forsaken banlieues who struggles to adjust to the environment’s tough conditions. As Marieme, played by first-time actress Karidja Touré, becomes overwhelmed by life in the suburbs, she catches the eyes of her school’s girl gang—which changes her life forever.

During this time last year, I was living in Paris, teaching English at a high school in the suburb of Noisy-le-Grand (about 30 minutes east of Paris by train).  It’s hard to believe such a drab ring of neighborhoods cradles one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The buildings and apartment complexes look the same (but not in that Haussmannian way of Paris), there’s generally one or two one-stop-shop supermarkets or strip centers, and a plethora of rustic playgrounds that give off eerie feelings of being misplaced simply because there's never anyone on them. But the girls of these neighborhoods—and this film—remind me so much of my students. Sciamma’s casting couldn’t be more spot-on.

Karidja’s transformation from Marieme to “Vic” (as in “Victory," the name the girls gifted her halfway through the film) paints a realistic picture of the teenage experience. After noticing her crush’s friendship with the girl gang, Vic asks if she can tag along on a trip to Paris against her mother’s will. Not long after, we see her with the same hair, outfits, and attitude as her new comrades: Stealing classmates’ lunch money, threatening her peers into giving her exactly what she wanted. But after a premeditated schoolyard fight between the gang’s leader Lady (Assa Sylla) and an enemy from an opposing gang, the onlookers’ videos they’d taped went viral, and Lady’s parents shaved her head—a symbolic attempt to return their daughter to her birth name, Sophie. The morale between the girls shifts as they finally enter high school, and the film’s climax is a positive one. Their ideas of fun mature as well, as the girls partake in trips to their local mini-golf and host dance-offs in the middle of La Défense. But, as French cinema would have it, the film nosedives into yet another rut of shortcomings and Vic makes her final move to Paris to become a drug dealer. The film’s ending, however, will leave you in tears of merriment, because it’s Vic’s final life decision that makes her the most resilient of them all.

So run, don’t walk, to the theater and treat yourself to an important story of female empowerment, courage, and of course—victory. You will remember those four girls, just as I remember those from my own life, long after the movie’s end.

Bradley Cooper and Emma Stone as romantic foils in a rom-com seems like a no brainer, which is probably what Cameron Crowe was thinking when he cast them in his latest movie, Aloha. In the brand new trailer, we see Cooper as a disgraced military contractor who comes back to Hawaii to resurrect his career. There, he meets Stone's perky Air Force cadet and flirting ensues, because that's how things go down in Hawaii. Things get complicated when Cooper's ex, played by Rachel McAdams, comes back into the picture. Bill Murray, John Krasinski, Danny McBride and Alec Baldwin round out one of the most likeable casts we've seen in a while. Aloha opens on May 29.

It was bound to happen, we're just surprised it took this long. Some mysterious mash up genius calling themselves Beckyoncé took the Grammy's Best Album controversy as an opportunity to bring together Beck and Beyoncé's two most famous songs—"Loser" and "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)"—into a glorious, conciliatory hymn called "Single Loser (Put A Beck On It)." Not only does this now put a full stop on the fallout from Sunday night's dust-up (enough with the Kanye think pieces, please), but it's also kind of a jam. Listen below. 

In recent months, Drake was spotted shooting some kind of movie all over his Toronto hometown. I should know — I live here, and received multiple texts saying "OMG I just saw Drake shooting some kind of movie all over his Toronto hometown!"

Most Drizzy insiders — and there are many here — suggested he was making the first video for his long-awaited Views From The 6 record. They were wrong. Drake was actually shooting a 15 minute art film called Jungle, which he released via Twitter Thursday morning. All the classic Drake-isms are here: introspective musings, sullen looks, late night car rides, grainy home movies, and the CN Tower. 

At the 6:06 mark, we get a snippet of a brand new Drake banger, which will presumably be featured on his upcoming album, or that long-rumored mixtape we've heard so much about. Either way, the year of Drake officially starts now. Watch Jungle below. 

Being single this time of year can either be an unacceptable mark of shame, or it could just be whatever. That really depends on you. But if you are single this Saturday night when most of your friends are doing the candlelight dinner thing blah blah blah, fear not: here's a list of movies you can watch that will remind you that love isn't all you need. 

Frances Ha
Frances Ha is a rare jewel: a movie about a young woman (an incredibly likeable Greta Gerwig) trying to find a sense of place and purpose in the big city, that does’t revolve around a romance. Frances wants to be happy, and she doesn’t need a man to do it.   

Hard Candy
Not only is this the squirm-inducing  movie that gave Ellen Page to the world (thank you, squirm-inducing movie!), but it’s also the movie where a methodical 14-year-old girl gets vicious, visceral revenge on a pedophile. It’s disturbing—and delightful—stuff.

Sucker Punch
Zack Snyder’s pop anime fever dream was mocked when it came out, as it deserved to be—it’s a hot, glorious mess (emphasis on the hot). But sometimes it’s fun to just watch a gang of girls annihilate anything that stands in their way.

The Diary of Anne Frank
A poetic, powerful portrayal of a teenage girl grappling with real problems with courage and grace. 

Election
The movie where Reese Witherspoon announced herself as a major talent, Election is a portrait of ambition gone haywire. Witherspoon's Tracy Flick will stop at nothing to win her student body's presidency, and her ruthlessness, although hidden behind a sunny veneer, is palpable in almost every scene she's in. 

Kill Bill Vol. 1 
The fourth film by Quentin Tarantino opens at a bridal party, but it’s not that kind of movie. Within moments, everyone there is dead. Almost everyone. This unapologetically unromantic revenge fantasy never looks back as Uma Thurman’s The Bride skillfully dispatches her enemies with the help of her one true love: a samurai sword.   

Women Who Kill
You know what Amy Schumer, Rachel Feinstein, Nikki Glaser and Marina Franklin have in common? No, not their lady bits; they are all freaking hilarious.

Honey Badgers: The Masters Of Mayhem
Guys, what is more bad-ass than a honey badger? They clearly do not give a damn. 

Almost Famous

Our long, national nightmare is over. After months of airtight secrecy, the name of Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively's newborn daughter has been revealed. But if you think we're going to just flat out tell you, think again. This ain't Us Weekly. If you really want to know what to call the latest winner of the genetic lottery, you're going to have to earn it. We've spent the last hour developing a devilishly clever quiz that will take Sherlock-Holmesian wits to solve. 

Ready? 

The baby girl of Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively shares a name with the actor Franco. If you guessed James, you get a cookie. Come to think of it, the brand new parents get one too for absolutely pulverizing hetero-normative baby naming conventions. So here's a double stuffed oreo for Blake, Ryan and little baby James, you progressive celebrity types, you. 

As I stated last week when I posted some behind the scenes polaroids I took on set: I have been obsessed with aliens my entire life. Naturally, this served as the inspiration for my February '15 issue beauty opener. Photographed by the otherwordly talented Jamie Nelson, the shoot was all sorts of cool, and I couldn't be more obsessed with how it came out. Make sure to scroll through the gallery and check out all the awesomeness seen in the magazine, plus a bunch of outtakes!

P.S. Shoutout to the incredible crew for making all of my alien fantasies come to life, and make sure to follow us all on Instagram! Stay weird, kids.

Senior Beauty Editor: Jade Taylor

Stylist: Michael Kozak

Makeup artist: Michael Anthony

Hair stylist: Mischa G.

Nail artist: Fleury Rose

Model: Paulina Panas at Wilhelmina

Photographer: Jamie Nelson

P.S.S. Follow NYLON on Pinterest to pin these stellar images (and more) to your beauty boards! 

With a certain BDSM-themed movie hitting theaters tomorrow, we thought this would be a good opportunity to revisit a feature with Dakota Johnson, one year before 50 Shades of Grey was even published, and fives years before the movie version transformed her into an instant star. 

DAKOTA JOHNSON

Age: 20

AUSTIN, TX

Sure, she's the daughter of Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson, but considering that she looks she's just stepped out of the Lolita movie poster, the camera probably would have found Dacota Johnson-who has upcoming roles in Beastly and David Fincher's The Social Network-anyway. 

I DON'T THINK I WAS EVER LIKE, "I WANT TO BE AN ACTRESS."
I grew up around it. I was more like, "This is what I do. This is how I deal with the shit that's going on inside me." 

I'VE BEEN LISTENING TO A LOT OF MUMFORD & SONS.
I like the entire album and that's pretty rare. There are usually one or two songs that I could do without. I just saw them in Sydney at the Laneway Festival. It was so cool.

NOBODY LEARNS HOW TO SPEAK RUSSIAN. 
So I'm learning. I'm using Rosetta Stone and I feel really silly when I'm using it. I'm in my house, speaking Russian to myself into headphones attached to a microphone. It's funny.

I REALLY WANT TO WORK WITH QUENTIN TARANTINO.
His movies are just really real. It's funny and it's sexy. It's the down-and-dirty, gritty business.

I'M FACINATED BY THE WAY THE MIND WORKS.
If I wasn't acting, I might be a phychiatrist. I'm interested in the actions and decisions that people make every moment. MR

Photographed by Brigitte Sire.

dress by miumiu, sunglasses by ray-ban, her own necklace and bracelet, rings by cc skye

Kendall Jenner spent her childhood and adolescence learning how to Keep Up with the Kardashians. But now it's time for the 19 year old to leave the nest. As Allure's March cover star, the up-and-coming model talks about her struggle to distance her career in fashion from her family, and she hopes to achieve success on her own. 

Jenner stepped into the spotlight at age 11 as a part of her family's reality show, and hasn't been out of it since. While her fame can be directly attributed to her membership in the Kardarshian Klan, the model says that she's trying to keep out of her sisters' shadows, which is admittedly a hard thing to to. Even during Fashion Week, the reality stars are front row fixtures—though Jenner has made an effort to make sure that doesn't steal her own spotlight. When she was set to appear in her first Marc Jacobs show, the cover girl made sure that her family would not be in attendance for her modeling milestone. "As selfish as this sounds, I wanted the attention to be on me for five seconds rather than my family," she told Allure.

As Jenner starts to take on more major campaigns and lands impressive runway shows, it's clear that she has some seriously modeling chops. But try as she might to rid herself of the Kardashian shadow, family is forever.

Read Jenner's full interview at Allure.

We prefer when things are loud, bold, and spicy—especially when it comes to our food. Life is short, so you may as well flavor-blast it, right? With a cult-following due to its perfect level of spiciness (it lies in the perfect sweet spot between eye-watering and thirst-inducing), Sriracha is by far one of our favorite condiments to add an instant burst of heat to any food. And trust us when we say any food.

Desserts, snacks, and comfort dishes alike all get an instant refresh with just a little bit of this Thai-inspired hot chili sauce. To bring some more warmth to our winter months, we found out some of our favorite food bloggers' favorite ways to use this fiery condiment. Check out how they add the sauce to every meal. But proceed with caution: This may tempt you to never eat a dish without Sriracha ever again.

Bake Your Day's Creamy Sriracha Pasta Bake

We like to consider ourselves serious mac and cheese fanatics (who doesn't?), but this recipe from Bake Your Day goes above and beyond the already near-perfect concoction that we know. White cheddar, Parmesan, and Colby Jack are melted into a thick, creamy bechamel sauce that is spiced with just a touch of nutmeg and oregano. Once the pasta is doused with the cheese sauce, a hearty serving of Sriracha adds a major zing. Breadcrumbs make a satisfying crispy topping and the dish is baked to golden, spicy, cheesy perfection.

PHOTO CREDIT: Cassie Laemmli, Bake Your Day

Hipster Food's Sriracha Bloody Mary

If you thought that Sriracha only belonged on food, think again. Take your boozy brunch from a zero to 100 (real quick) with a Bloody Mary recipe by Hipster Food that will seriously spice things up. Tabasco sauce may be the traditional Bloody Mary mix-in, but Sriracha brings in a different kind of spiciness that's sharper and more distinct. This recipe also adds in some liquid smoke for a drink that's rich and savory. Make one yourself in the morning to nurse your hangover with some heat.

PHOTO CREDIT: Cara Lynne, Hipster Food

 Savory Simple's Sriracha Hummus

Cooking may not come naturally to everyone, but you don't have to be Ina Garten to whip up your own batch of dipping-ready hummus. Savory Simple breaks down the easy-to-make spread and adds in Sriracha for an extra punch. You're going to want to break out the food processor for this one, and you may never buy store-bought hummus again. With a recipe so simple yet so delicious, how could anyone resist?

PHOTO CREDIT: Jennifer Farley, Savory Simple

The Messy Baker's Chocolate Brownie Cookies With Sriracha Ganache

Spicy chocolate may sound weird, but once you try it out you'll never go back to bland baked goods again. Chili and chocolate are a time-tested combination, but The Messy Baker takes things to the next level with this decadent Sriracha ganache. Think chocolate sauce plus fire-roasted chilies drizzled over cookies baked to just the right consistency—cracked and crispy on the outside but gooey and melted on the inside. Now you won't be forced to choose between cookies or brownies ever again. Just combine them into one chocolaty treat—and top with a spicy kick for a gourmet touch.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Jennie Phaneuf, The Messy Baker

Cookin' Canuck's Roasted Butternut Squash Salad With Sriracha Lime Dressing

Homemade salads can really be hit-or-miss. Sometimes the safest bet is to rely on your bodega salad bar for a meal that gets the dressing-leaf ratio down to a T. But with a salad dressing so satisfyingly spicy like this one from Cookin' Canuck, we're more than happy to say goodbye to our $10 salads in exchange for one we can easily whip up at home. Roasted butternut squash and black beans make this dish a hearty meal rather than a side dish and the five-ingredient Sriracha dressing is something we find ourselves making again and again. Eating our greens just got way more exciting.

PHOTO CREDIT: Dara Michalski, Cookin' Canuck

How I Pinch a Penny's Sriracha Bacon

It's not like Sriracha doesn't already have a place of honor in our breakfast nook. We basically rely on Rooster sauce to amp up our scrambled eggs and omelettes for a protein-packed meal. But for a morning meal that's a bit more indulgent and just as spicy, it only makes sense that we break out the bacon. How I Pinch a Penny coats bacon in Sriracha and brown sugar before baking for crispy slices that are even more deliciously savory than usual—we're already drooling just thinking about them. Bonus: By baking your bacon instead of frying it, you'll be left with more room on your stovetop to whip up an impressive brunch.

PHOTO CREDIT: Sarah Mock, How I Pinch a Penny

Baker By Nature's Spicy Ramen Noodle Soup

It's cheap, it's delicious, and it's easy to make: We could wax poetic about ramen for days. But with a couple extra ingredients and a little bit of Sriracha, the official meal of broke babes everywhere is transformed into a restaurant-quality dish. Baker By Nature's 20-minute meal makes for a seriously tasty weeknight meal or midnight snack that won't break the bank. As tempting as it is to order takeout whenever we need a quick, flavorful dinner, this recipe helps us to stop ordering delivery every other night—sorry, Seamless.

PHOTO CREDIT: Ashley Manila, Baker By Nature

Bake Your Day's Spicy Sriracha Popcorn

If Olivia Pope was feeling particularly fiesty, we like to think that she'd squirt some hot sauce onto her ever-present bowl of popcorn. Whether you need a snack for your latest Scandal binge or you'd like to take your movie treat to the next level, Bake Your Day seriously knows how to amp up popcorn with Sriracha, garlic powder, and ginger. The finger food completely changes the late-night snacking game, and we're not complaining.

PHOTO CREDIT: Cassie Laemmli, Bake Your Day

It comes as no surprise that Kelly Kapowski knows how to throw the perfect party. Set to star in her own Cooking Channel show, Dinner at Tiffani's, Tiffani Amber Thiessen is reuniting with her old Saved By the Bell co-stars to show just how to host a dinner party the right way. Premiering February 25 and streaming online, the 40-minute episodes will show the '90s style icon throwing soirées in her home for celebrity friends old and new, including SBTB alums Mario Lopez and Elizabeth Berkley, plus more current costars, like Tim DeKay from White Collar. NYLON spoke to the soon-to-be mom about throwing parties, appearing on Jimmy Fallon, and why pizza is basically the best thing ever.

What are some of your favorite tips and must-haves for a really great party?

For me, it’s about of course the people. I say this a lot—that what food does for me is it connects people, and that’s really what first of all the show is about. It’s about reconnecting people or new people meeting for the first time, and connecting over a great meal. And then of course you want to be serving good food, so one of the things that I always do is to make sure that there’s no real big dislikes in the people that are coming over. If they have any specific dislikes that I want to make sure to stay clear of that. Or any allergies and things they don’t eat. And then thirdly, have fun! That’s the whole thing about sitting down and connecting over food is having a good time and that’s what I think a lot of people who love to cook in the kitchen is they’re kind of showing me an extension of their love and joy of them being in the kitchen into the food that they make and then of course serving it to the people they love.

Are there any tips you have for hosting a dinner party or evening party for the first time ever?

I timeline everything out from what I’m buying at the grocery store, getting things prepped, what actually goes in the oven at what time, making sure I set the table at a certain time beforehand, things like that and maybe it’s my Type A personality but it really does help make it very smooth on the day. So I’m not stressed out because the last thing I want is for me to be stressed out, and then when my guests get there I’m completely just out of it, you know? Because you want everybody to enjoy sitting down and having a great meal together. 

Are there any things that you find people tend to overlook when planning a party?

I think it’s so hard because every party is going to be different. I mean something that’s also a passion of mine is the tablescape—you know, of making a beautiful table. So it really depends on you know, lighting can be different from a brunch to a dinner party, you know, inside or outside so it’s hard for me to give one tip for that would kind of work for everything on that kind of aspect, like I said for me, preparation is such a thing for me because I want everything to go smoothly, so for me, preparation is huge, and that’s why a timeline for me works really well. And preparing my menu ahead of time and making sure that everybody who is coming over to the house doesn’t have any sort of allergies or aversions to anything that I could be cooking because that could be a total disaster when half the crowd is gluten-free and you’re serving gluten pizza. So things like that are tricks that I make sure allows my party to go smoothly.

How do you like to create a beautiful tablescape? 

Because food is so much about connecting with the people across from you or next to you, I tend to always design my tablescapes to be more on the lower side, and if there is anything that has a lot of height, it tends to stay on the edges. Because I want to be able to connect with my guests and see their eyes—does that make sense? So a lot of my floral arrangements or anything else that I have that’s decor on the table I focus especially in the middle. Also, a theme is very important to me too. So say a couple of weekends ago I had movie night at my house for my birthday and so we had comfort food so I wanted everyone to feel very comfortable—so big soup bowls and big plates. We were doing grilled cheeses and tomato soup and so I wanted everything to kind of coincide with that kind of feeling and I had big blankets out for everyone in the movie theatre and it was that kind of thing that to me really speaks volumes for making your guest feel a part of what’s actually going to be either served to them or what’s going to be happening in the evening. 

How about any Valentines Day tips for having some people over?

Yeah! I threw actually a very sweet Valentines party last year. We’re skipping it this year just because its a little crazy around our house these days. But its usually a fun holiday that I love having. Especially more these days because I have a four and a half-year-old because its such an innocent time and so we had a beautiful sweet little Valentines Day party last year that was so much fun, we had a photo booth for the kids where they all got to dress up in. We had a cute little innocent kissing booth for the kids where they gave out candy to each other, they didn’t really kiss each other, of course. And for kids' parties to me, again, kid-friendly pieces. So the tables are all low, the chairs of course are for kids, and the decor is very kid-friendly where kids can touch it and it’s not gonna break. And colorful, very colorful. When it comes to kids parties, the more color the better because that’s what speaks to them. But as far as Valentines, it’s like a time when people can remind themselves to have a kiss and tell each other that they love each other. It’s a fun one for sure, I’m going to be missing having that this year!

If you were spending let’s say $20 or $30 on a dinner party, you didn’t want to go much higher than that, what would be your must-haves?

One of the cheapest things and funnest parties that I do, and I do them all the time, is pizza parties. It doesn’t cost a lot of money to make dough or even buy dough at a pizza or Italian restaurant down the street. And you can have your guests come early and actually make their own pizza, which is a super-fun, completely connecting, gathering-in-kitchen sort of party and then you all sit down and have pizza together. And people come up with some crazy concoctions which is actually kind of fun. So that’s one of my most favorite, very budget-friendly, easy sort of dinner party tricks that I do that I love.

And obviously who doesn’t love pizza?

Who doesn’t love pizza? And you can get gluten-free dough if you had to. Someone can have a vegetarian pizza, someone can be a meat-lover, everybody can make their own which is kind of fun. 

You just did one of the best late night skits of all time—was it fun? You guys seemed like you just walked on stage and were overwhelmed by how excited everyone was. 

It’s funny. We’ve had a dream for a very long time about people wanting this. So it’s not like we haven’t heard it. Now, did we expect the craziness of it all? No, of course not. I don’t think you can really put your finger on how many people are going to watch it, how the YouTube was going to go nutty, how it was just going to be this huge viral thing. You don’t ever expect anything like that. I mean I definitely knew it was going to be a hit and also because we had such a good time doing it. A lot of us still speak to each other—we’re still very close. I see Mario, I see Elizabeth, you know, I have Elizabeth and Mario on my show, this dinner that came on. So a lot of us are still very close and Jimmy could not have been more sweet, more supportive, more of a cheerleader through all of it, and his head writer Mike, who was a huge fan of the show, he just went above and beyond and wrote a script that all of us just could not get enough of. It was just so brilliantly written, so funny, so to a tee, had everyone doing something that spoke to their character in the past, or for me, very present. So we had a blast, it was a day that I think all of us will totally remember.

You guys all look great. Like you all look better now than you did then.

Oh, you’re very sweet...says the pregnant woman who has the big stomach!

But you’re glowing, honestly, you’re like a light. It’s just so much fun to see.

We had a great time, we really did. Like I said, we had a lot of fun with it and we were very thankful to Jimmy, you know, like I said, we’d been in the talks for quite some time and it was the perfect time and it was the perfect script and it all went great.

I see that a couple of them are going to be on your show. It’s nice to see that an experience like that creates really wonderful lasting friendships, I would imagine.

Absolutely. And I have Jason Priestly come on to the show and I’ve stayed extremely close to from 90210 and I’m very fortunate to still be able to say that with my past castmates and same with White Collar, we have a lot of the guys from White Collar coming on to the show that I’m still super super close to. And I think since it’s so constantly changing and you’re not in the same place at the same time all the time that it’s nice that you can keep those friendships and those relationships going over the years.

Over a decade ago, mother-to-be Keira Knightley starred in a not-so-good movie called King Arthur. I thought it was not-so-good because, after growing up on the classic feminist text Mists Of Avalon and after reading Le Morte d'Arthur, I hoped there would be a little Pagan ritual, or at least some sort of Lancelot/Arthur/Guinevere threesome (there is not). The arrow-wielding Guinevere was pretty unexpected, though, but here is something that was even more unexpected: At the time, Keira was dating Jamie Dornan, of Fifty Shades fame.

A couple things are of note here: The first is that us silly Americans did not realize that Jamie Dornan did not sprout, fully formed, onto the set of Once Upon A Time. (No, he cameo'd in Marie Antoinette and also starred in a wonderful-sounding film called Beyond The Rave. The second is that I clearly did not read his Wikipedia closely enough. Lastly, while none of us were making good decisions about anything in 2004, Jamie Dornan really has a story to tell with his jean selection here. 

Luckily, both are married and are parents or soon-to-be parents, so all that's left here is a lot of ill-fitting denim.