Paris Fashion Week is only halfway through, but Madeline Argy has already picked up a pro tip for all the sartorial and social marathoners among us: “I now carry gum with me everywhere, because you have to sit very close to people,” the TikTokker and podcaster says to me over the phone this week. “There’s always going to be a girl that can offer you gum, but it’s nice to be the girl with the gum.”
We’re speaking the afternoon after Argy attended the Saint Laurent show, which she decrees is “my favorite show that I’ve ever been to … the Eiffel Tower lit up perfectly right as it started, which was crazy!” It’s her first fashion month going all out, and the 23-year-old tells me she’s found the experience intimidating. “I feel like I’ve gained some perspective on it this time around and gained some confidence too,” she says. “‘Cause I used to just be absolutely petrified and I think it probably showed a lot, like with pictures.” What’s helped? “I kind of realized that you just have to, for 20 seconds, lie to yourself and say everything is fine. And then that’s all it takes.”
By Stepan Filenko.
Considering the Londoner’s hallmark overshare-y bestie vibe on TikTok and YouTube, the sheer set she wore to the show—the top accentuated with what Argy jokes is a highly strategic velvet band—reads a little like a metaphor for the exposure that comes with the persona-as-brand type of online fame. You know, the kind where nearly 5 million followers watch you gaze into the camera as you ponder what DJs actually do or discuss “an at-home colonoscopy,” who then might feel entitled to the ins and outs of the rest of your life too (what she describes in the video is actually an enema).
Earlier the day we spoke, Argy had appeared on the Call Her Daddy podcast to address recent speculation about the end of her relationship with the British rapper Central Cee. I ask if it weighed on her whether to comment or not on her romantic status. “It’s tricky when people from every angle want you to talk about something so desperately,” Argy says. “But you know, if there’s any place to talk about something like that, it’s definitely with Alex Cooper, and it’s definitely on that podcast. I don’t think there’s any other place where you would get me to, to say anything about any relationship I’ve had. I mean, other than maybe my podcast.”
Speaking of which: On October 2, Argy’s new show, Pretty Lonesome, will debut under Cooper’s recently launched Gen Z media brand Unwell, which also recently brought on fellow internet it girl Alix Earle. (A power triumvirate to rival anything the ancient Romans ever produced.) On the topic of Cooper, even the fast-talking Argy admits she feels a sense of admiration. “Sometimes I’ll have a good idea, but I can only say one sentence about it,” Argy explains. “Then I’ll tell her, and she can talk for 20 minutes on that good idea.”
By Stepan Filenko.