Ariana Grande is reminiscing about a bygone fashion era, as she delves into some of the most iconic looks from her illustrious career in Vogue's Life in Looks series. When presented with a 2018 photograph of herself wearing an oversized sweatshirt and towering boots—her signature style at the time—Grande reflects, "This was a very peculiar chapter in my life."
"I was grappling with a lot, and I always craved the comfort of cocooning myself in something truly cozy," she explains. "Yet, I remember those boots still giving me that little boost of confidence. At that moment, I genuinely didn't have the mental bandwidth to contemplate my attire. So, it was effortless for me to slip into a sweatshirt and those cozy boots, and that's how it happened."
The Wicked star encountered numerous challenges during this period. On May 22, 2017, a terrorist bombing claimed the lives of 22 people and injured over 500 at her concert in Manchester, England. Since then, Grande has candidly spoken about her struggles with anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder following the devastating event.
Following the incident, she suspended the tour, but less than two weeks later, she returned to Manchester for a star-studded benefit concert to support the victims of the attack. The lineup included performers such as Pharrell Williams, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Niall Horan, Robbie Williams, the Black Eyed Peas, and Katy Perry.
In a November 2018 letter to her fans, Grande expressed that the bombing "will leave me speechless and filled with questions for the rest of my life." Additionally, Grande experienced the loss of her ex-boyfriend Mac Miller, who passed away from an accidental overdose on September 7, 2018, at the age of 26.
In a 2019 interview for Vogue's August cover story, Grande revealed that her grief over Miller's death was "all-consuming." "By no means was what we had perfect," she told the magazine. "He was the best person ever, and he didn't deserve the demons he had. I was like a glue for such a long time, and I found myself becoming... less and less sticky. The pieces just started to drift away."
During the interview, Grande also defended herself against online trolls who blamed her for Miller's death. "People don't see any of the real stuff that happens," she shared. "They don't witness the years of work and fighting and trying, or the love and exhaustion." A month after Miller's passing, Grande and her then-fiancé Pete Davidson called it quits. The couple was first linked in May 2018 and got engaged less than a month later before splitting in October.
