Keeping Up with Laufey

Laufey Lín Bing Jónsdóttir OTF, known mononymously as Laufey, is an Icelandic singer, songwriter and writer. Her musical style blends genres such as jazz pop and classical music. Laufey began performing as a cello soloist with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra at age 15.

The prodigious talent takes a cover of Vogue Portugal’s [IG] May 2026 ‘Heart & Reason’ issue, highlighting the balancing act between emotion and logic. Loizos Sofokleous styles the shoot, with photography by Élio Nogueira [IG] shot in Lisbon.

Anne of Carversville last featured this inspiring talent in a story ‘Laufey on the Up and Up’, for the May 2024 issue of Vogue China+. Laufey and her twin sister were born in Reykjavik to a Chinese mother violinist and a Icelandic economist father, who was a devotee of Chet Baker. Music exists as the blood of life in this family.

The 27-year-old Icelandic-Chinese jazz-pop artist has had a monumental start to the year, solidifying her position as a generational musical icon with back-to-back prestigious accolades, global performances, and high-profile fashion appearances.

Cultural Fusion Is the Heart of Jazz

Laufey has ended the massive Asian leg of her global "A Matter of Time" Tour, having recently completed three sold-out arena shows in Manila and moving into tour dates across Japan, South Korea, and China.

She is now in the final stages of the tour with devoted fans in Mexico City and Brazil awaiting her arrival.

In AOC’s initial 2024 post on Laufey, we linked into a jazz-lovers in-depth analysis of her relationship and roots with jazz and the jazz community. Today. we want to underscore Laufey’s performances at the Montreux Jazz Festival, the Umbria Jazz Festival and London Jazz Festival.

A new festival for AOC is the Java Jazz Festival in Jakarta, Indonesia — one of the largest jazz gatherings in the southern hemisphere. Indeed, Laufey performed there on on May 24, 2024 singing ‘I Wish You Love’.

Jazz in China

Unlike Western jazz hubs where audiences tend to skew older, Downbeat Magazine notes that the jazz audience in China is overwhelmingly young. The result is a highly curious, tech-savvy fanbase that aligns perfectly with Laufe’s core listeners worldwide.

Jazz is a key unifier in the emerging, global New Humanism movement. Anne uses the term New Humanism, to distinguish it from humanism in Europe, which was Eurocentric and — in spite of its philosophical values — managed to embrace the global slave trade.

As we speak, France has finally abolished its Code Noir laws, which defined human beings of color as property that could be transferred wherever an owner chose to send him/her or sell them.

Dior’s current preoccupation is with a Eurocentric vision of culture — one that prioritizes books and authors with a vision of global history in which the European white male prevails, or he forewarns readers of the coming collapse of civilization if women and people of color acquire agency.

Delphine Arnault doesn’t view Anderson’s titles ‘political’. Chiuri tees with the word ‘feminist’. Kaput. No more feminist talk permitted. But a book that right now is the foundation of digital snuff films in which women are murdered and tortured. Dior’s ‘Clockwork Orange’ merch is a so-called cultural masterpiece.

Louis Vuitton Is Jazz, Baby

Note that Louis Vuitton wants nothing to do with Dior’s new philosophy. This is not an LVMH trend. LV is deeply embedded in Chinese culture far beyond the success of The Louis in Shanghai. They even have separate creative teams in China to help them maximize the Vuitton relationship in China, through the hearts and minds of their Chinese clients, who share Louis Vuitton values through their own cultural lens.

AOC can’t imagine Dior’s Sun King tolerating a similar approach operating outside his own orbit.

New York Subway Fashion Rebellion

Returning to Laufe last December, she sat in the front row at the increasingly-famous Chanel Métiers d’Art 2026 Show New York. There are so many stories that are untouched in modern fashion media, and the beautiful saga of Chanel and Bhavitha Mandava on Red Note in China is one of them.

It’s a separate post for AOC to write, but the response to Mandava’s ambassador appointment was greeted with cheers in China. And especially because it happened in New York City.

Matthieu Blazy and Leena Nair are delighted to step into the space vacated by Dior with the Anderson appointment and his Eurocentric/American, ancient point of view about movers and shakers in culture.

I must render an AI vision of Blazy and Nair as Statues of Liberty with outstretched arms welcoming feminist women worldwide and also people of color to the Chanel family.

You think Anne is exaggerating? I’ll post the Leena Nair interview with Business of Fashion. Maria Grazia Chiuri has a soul sister and the absolutely delightful, enormously-competent Leena Nair has not come to play at being the boss. And poor Jonathan Anderson complains that we are boxing him in. My heart bleeds for him.

Success and the Subway

The NYC subway is one of the world’s most democratic symbols of success, which is where Blazy and Nair headed to get their point across about determined women riding the rails to success. I was astonished when my China source shared with me Red Note postings about the meaning of Chanel’s choice of the NYC subway for their fashion show. Like Anne, they got it.

Red Note was even more thrilled with the appointment of Bhavitha Mandava as a Chanel ambassador; and they knew about her subway-riding discovery. For these young women in China and their moms and grandmothers, too, Mandava is one of them. She carries their spirits with her, just as she carries my memories of being the young woman with big dreams riding the New York subway.

I wasn’t focused on Laufey’s front row attendance at Chanel’s culture high note in December 2025. There was a whole lot of emotion going on for many of us who saw the full potential and meaning of the Chanel subway decision. At the very time we were losing Maria Grazia Chiuri and all she stood for, Blazy and Nair rose as part of a new dawn at Chanel.

I pray the brand finds a route to a more formal relationship with this global talent — sooner rather than later. If not, Louis Vuitton — and especially Pharrell — recognize the significant opportunity attached to Laufey’s talent and her New Humanism values. She performs concerts in Mandarin, for heavens sake. And they love her in Brazil. Get a move on, guys. Sending love to most. ~ Anne