Well before YSL Beauté can officially announce Dua Lipa as the new face of its global cosmetics collection in the spring, everybody has a few things to do, namely a secret photo shoot and a series of interviews in New York City during the final days of fall.

When I arrive just on time for my own slice of face time with Lipa, things are running fashionably late. It’s not a logistical nightmare because nightmares aren’t real. Pulling off a clandestine shoot with one of the world’s most famous women in one of its most densely populated cities for an announcement that will occur months later is more of a logistical bomb cyclone, which is perhaps why the shoot is sheltered in the geometric center of a studio building downtown, away from prying gazes and beyond the light of day. My access to a room labeled “YVES SAINT LAURENT” with paper signage is initially denied, but moments later, the doors open to release an entourage of no less than 10 people, all looking creatively exhausted — at their center is Dua Lipa, dressed in a multitude of distinct shades of black. She does not seem tired.

After being escorted to another, even more private room, Lipa settles onto a couch opposite a shaded window for a series of short interviews with beauty press such as myself; her legs are crossed and her exquisitely tailored wool pants end in pointy patent-leather pumps. “I feel like the Saint Laurent woman walks a fine line between masculine and feminine,” Lipa tells me. “I love a boyish style as well.” She says multiple times that she loves duality. She is stumped only briefly when I ask her who the most beautiful person she’s ever met is. “I meet beautiful people all of the time,” she says to nearby publicists, sounding gently frazzled for lack of an immediate answer.

In the greater context of her career — London teen to cocktail waitress to up-and-coming recording artist to famous musician with a global cosmetics contract — the current moment is a transitional one for Lipa. If earworm hits such as 2017’s “New Rules” gained her worldwide recognition, her 2020 album Future Nostalgia solidified her as a figure worth stanning. Her involvement with the Barbie movie (she played a mermaid and contributed a now-hit song) kept her on press tours throughout 2023, which have seamlessly coincided with pre-press for her other new film (a guest role in Argylle) and yet-to-be-announced third album (teased by the disco single “Houdini”).