Front row at the YSL Men’s show in Milan on Wednesday. Actors Debi Mazar and Connor Storrie sit next to Charli xcx and Madonna. Charli is puffing on a Marlboro Red – the cigarette marque she endorsed as “Brat”, two summers back. Perhaps a tad performatively, Madonna is sucking something slim and brown – a cigarillo, maybe? A few seats along is Kate Moss, unofficial ambassador for Marlboro Lights for almost 30 years now.
No one asks for permission; other show guests dare not complain about harmful, secondary fumes. Smoking as rebellion, as rule-breaking, alarm-busting, anti-establishment elitism, is back. Cigarettes – now up to £25 for a packet of 20 and super chic Vogues costing as much as £40 – rebranded as a luxury item.
