newsletter issue 357

It’s the day before the L’Oréal Paris Défilé when I get on a Zoom call with Simone Ashley. She’s just flown into Paris and has a packed day of fittings and beauty appointments ahead of her but seems entirely unruffled. After all, she’s had a pretty full year.

At the start of the year, she made a brief return as Kate Sharma in Bridgerton, a character that audiences clearly still have plenty of feelings about. Then came The Devil Wears Prada 2, where she played Amari and gave us an excellent run of fashion moments along the way. (Apparently, she’s the one who came up with “Who gives away Chanel!”) Less expected, perhaps, has been her music career. Not many know that the 31-year-old is also a singer-songwriter and released her debut EP, Songs I Wrote in New York, in April. For now, though, she’s in Paris, joining Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and a host of south Asian stars at the annual L’Oréal Paris show. Between everything on her schedule, Ashley talks to us about getting camera-ready, the skincare she relies on, finding time to enjoy Paris, and what’s coming next.