Yara Shahidi Is Making Music She’ll Never Release

Yara Shahidi has a busy year of “hobbying” ahead of her. Along with four—yes, four—movie projects and her own podcast with her mom Keri Shahidi, the Gucci ambassador is also setting aside time to make “bad” art. Namely, DJ tracks that will never be released.

Another thing Shahidi will always make time for is a great fashion moment. The actress attended the Gucci cruise 2026 runway show in Florence, Italy—with her mom in tow, of course—and took ELLE behind the scenes of her pre-show routine and the inspiration behind her look: a double-breasted white vest, black patent leather skirt, chartreuse heels, and a Horsebit clutch. She also gave us the inside scoop on making her podcast, her style journey, and how she’ll be spending her summer: micro-journaling and prioritizing her inner hobbyist.

It was so beautiful. It was such a fun homage to so many of the archive looks and silhouettes. I really enjoyed it.

What I love about being able to attend certain shows is to see a whole look come to fruition. To be able to watch the look that I’m wearing now walk a couple months ago—it’s nice to see it in its intended context and then figure out, OK, how do I make it mine? I always love a pop of color and something bright. I just feel like it brings so much nice energy. For the rest of my look, we leaned into what the garment was already doing. There’s definitely a bit of a Mod, ’60s inspiration, and so we figured out how to gently lean into that with hair and makeup.

Luckily, I have a team that is excited by that level of collaboration. No one’s trying to outshine any other elements of the look. They’re just trying to figure out how to work most cohesively. And so typically, every great moment starts with a lot of Pinterest [boards] and a group text, because I always love giving space for the actual outfit to shine. I’m a bit of a stickler for proportions, of being like, if I have a high collar, nothing by my neck, just so nothing looks like it’s competing.

The question is always, what are ways to have fun? It’s such a privilege to be able to play in this space in the first place that I think there’s always a need to not want to take anything too seriously, even aesthetically. That’s really where a lot of the fun comes from. Are there textures that we play with that we haven’t before? Are there hairstyles and references that I love? And the references range from album covers to random paintings. For the Met [Gala], I showed my hairstylist a random painting of a Persian illustration from the 14th century. I think there’s always an element of spontaneity because there’s only so much you can plan until you see it on your body and you get the vibe.

I think music is the one constant in my life and because I travel so much, the one, very subtle way I can find a sense of normalcy is by listening to something I love. For beauty rituals, honestly, it’s a bucket of ice for a face dunk or just ice on my face in general because not only is it good for your nervous system, but it does provide a subtle little snatch. That’s a must. I feel like as I’ve gotten older, my beauty routine has become simpler and simpler. Had we had this conversation a year and a half ago, I would have listed like 15 serums, and I still have those in my cabinet from time to time, but I’m really out here using Cetaphil and calling it a day.

Prior to my campaign, I’ve been a friend of the brand for a while. I think I was 16 when I first started wearing Gucci and going to events, and it’s really cool to be able to grow with the brand because their aesthetic continues to evolve as well. There’s a sense of kismet, which has made every iteration of Gucci and every iteration of Yara really work, in that there’s such a fearlessness in terms of how things are styled. It’s always been bold colors, cool textures. I love playing with bedazzlement, playing with the classic oxblood that’s out now, or even the silks. That genuine playfulness that comes from the collection is really fun to tap into, because I feel like that's a part of my overall style, which is like, how do you make this feel fun and light? I want to feel like I’m coming in on a cloud.

It’s surreal because the last time I was in Florence, I was on the back of the buses for Guess Kids, with my bestie Mackenzie Foy. I haven’t been since I was seven, but Florence has made such an impact on me and I truly never stopped talking about it. It’s fun to be back.

The beautiful part of she and I being business partners is that underlying all of the actual work that we do are these constant quality-of-life conversations. What kind of life do we want to live? How do you move with purpose? That is pretty much the basis of what we discuss most days—and books we’re reading that help us uncover certain things. That became the catalyst for the podcast because those are the conversations we’re having with our peers and colleagues and walking away with such interesting tidbits about how people approach life, whether it be feeling a little lost or trying to re-find your purpose or find balance. So because we were always in these exclusive spaces, having pivotal conversations, we’re like, OK, how do we knock the doors down and really bring these conversations to the forefront? I know there are professionals who are asked about their work, but not necessarily what keeps them doing the work, especially as the stakes of our world get higher and higher and all work can seem tougher and harder, and it’s harder to feel motivated.

I say that as a preamble to the fact that we take away so much from every episode, and that sounds so vague and so cliché, but I don’t know how else to put it. We always come in having prepped, thinking about what we want to ask guests and tap into, but what they end up sharing is never necessarily what we plan for. Like Janelle Monáe having a list of affirmations on her Notes app and really under-thinking the whole journaling thing. Sometimes you don’t have time to sit down and take out your pretty journal and jot down how you’re feeling, but you have the Notes app to quickly document certain things. Then we’ve had Dr. Laurie Santos, who is giving us the science of happiness and how leaning into being of service is actually self-serving. We find ourselves quoting the podcast frequently in random conversations. People share such impactful bits of things you wouldn’t expect that help them keep pushing.

I recently had to drop this whole idea. Especially when I was like late teens, early 20s, I was journaling as though somebody was gonna find this. The stakes were so high. From how I’m writing to what I’m writing, talking about “Dear reader...” I was definitely not journaling for myself. I feel like it dissuaded me from just sitting down and writing out my thoughts because I felt like like, oh, if I didn’t have this really polished, complete thing to work through at the time, I wasn’t gonna do it. I’ve finally gotten back into journaling, and it’s been nice because I just think part of the practice was getting rid of all the little arbitrary rules I had for myself of like, sometimes it’s gonna be an incomplete sentence and sometimes it’s gonna be 5 pages. I feel so much better actually having a consistent practice versus trying to be the perfect journaler.

The actress with her mother, Keri.

The space she’s given me to play. So much of why I enjoy fashion is that she supported me through every fashion phase, awkward or not. Whether it be the fact that I refused to wear pants and would only wear skirts and high tops. And then I went to only wearing my Catholic school uniform, even in my free time: plaid skirts, knee high socks, Oxfords. Then to, now I only wear tracksuits, same color, head to toe. I’ve had many a fashion era, but I think because she’d always give me permission to dress how I felt, it’s always been a tool of self-expression for me.

I think that’s something that she’s modeled, too. We have a very dynamic style in that she and I and, surprisingly, my middle brother Sayeed practically share a closet because we have a very similar style. There’s never really been any kind of arbitrary rules. And as I've gone down this fashion path, I think it’s very easy to take yourself extremely seriously and be like, oh, I need to look super sophisticated. There’s a moment for looking very sophisticated and I love those moments, but I think she’s always been the one, even in my fittings, to remind me: what makes this you? What makes this fun? And my journey through fashion has been all the much better for it.

There’s so much that I can’t talk about. I know there will be some announcements coming out soon but I think it’ll be fun. This is really my first couple of years working without school and having these big parameters on my time. I’m signed on to four movies. And of course, my mother Keri and I, we have the projects that we’re developing in the television scripted space, which has been extremely exciting and leans into our genuine love of British television and British TV sensibilities. We have a ball bringing those things to life.

And then honestly, last year was my first year as an amateur hobbyist and I’m doubling down this year. I have a rap name, a DJ name, and then I was just trying to figure out what my alternative music name would be. I don’t plan on releasing any of this, but I think it’s been fun. I have a full DJ setup in my room. It’s funny because in a creative industry, it’s both a blessing but it also means that you monetize art. It’s been really lovely for me to have certain artistic moments that have nothing to do with my career, that I can be unabashedly bad at, because I had to work on being bad at things for a long time. I have hefty plans to be making bad DJ mixes in my room through the summer.

Open Gallery

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.