In Vogue Italia‘s November issue, Alicia Keys connects music, fashion and her Italian heritage, while unveiling a new creative project with her husband Swizz Beatz, due in early 2027.
For Alicia Keys, the connection between music and fashion starts with the people making it. Following her performance at Vogue World: Milano, the singer speaks to Vogue Italia about craftsmanship, affiliation and the creative space she shares with Swizz Beatz.
Interviewed by Corinne Corci and photographed by Szilveszter Makó, Keys reflects on performing Donna Summer’s I Feel Love at Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. She wore a dress by Francesco Risso for Bureau of Imagination, assembled from fragments and materials around the event’s theme of the tactile sense.
Alicia Keys:
I loved the connection to the concept of craftsmanship. I think about how a fabric comes into being, the painting on a dress, or the mastery of Roberto Bolle’s classical ballet. Everything celebrated the hands.
That attention to human bond likewise shapes her relationship with Italy. With family heritage tracing back to Sicily through the Augello name, Keys describes a sense of belonging which goes beyond ancestry.
I don’t speak Italian, and she didn’t know English, but when I looked at her, I saw my aunt, I saw my mother. I understood what she was trying to communicate through the way she cared for me. Italy is humanity.
The interview also introduces Lovers Rose, a forthcoming musical project from Keys and Swizz Beatz. Due to debut in early 2027, it is conceived as an immersive sonic installation, drawing on their mutual interest in soul, Chicano soul and car culture.
Swizz Beatz describes writing and exchanging ideas together as an opportunity to give listeners something unexpected. For Keys, the project offers room to step away from outside pressures:
It’s not the typical ‘New York sound’. There’s a sense of peace, of gentleness, a vibe that allows you to relax and disconnect from the turmoil of a world that frightens us.
From the handmade details of a dress to a joint musical environment, the conversation keeps returning to what people create for one another — and how those creations can give a sense of home.
