What do you want to do with your life? Like so many 21-year-olds before her, that question is top of mind for Apple Martin.
Martin—the elder child of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin—has already built up an impressive fashion resume. In 2024, she tapped Alessandro Michele to outfit her in a custom sky-blue Valentino dress for Le Bal des Débutantes in Paris, and she has starred in campaigns for GapStudio and Self-Portrait. But Martin once dreamed of becoming a lawyer. “I was in that rebellious, ‘I don’t wanna be like my parents’ type of phase,” she tells Vogue in an episode of Beauty Secrets. Unlike most teenagers, acting out for Martin meant matriculating to Vanderbilt University, where she’ll graduate with a degree in law, history, and society in May.
For Martin, who grew up in the public eye—the mere announcement of her name as a baby came with a rush of media attention—leaving Los Angeles for Nashville allowed her to live life on her own terms. “I’m so grateful that I got to have a really normal experience,” she says. Yes, this included the gnarly stuff, “like, getting mold poisoning from your dorm”—but her time at Vanderbilt has mostly been defined by testing out “a bunch of different vibes” and making “the best friends in the world.”
That’s not to say that Martin’s creative heritage didn’t follow her East; one day, she was cornered by a fellow student on campus. “I hear that you’re a secret theater kid,” the young woman told her. Now she’s directing a play at Vanderbilt. “[I] love it more than anything.”
She likes singing, too, but don’t expect her to drop an album anytime soon. “I don’t wanna be a singer,” she says. “I like musical theater, but getting onstage by yourself to sing is so terrifying.” Instead, she’s taking a cue from her mom. “I love dancing and I love acting,” she says. “My dream is to act.”
Work isn’t the only area where Martin looks up to Paltrow; she has also long considered her mother her sartorial North Star. “My mom’s wardrobe from her 20s is just about my favorite thing in the entire world,” Martin says. “It makes me emotional thinking about the things in that closet.”
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Over winter break, Paltrow let Martin loose in there, “as a little Grinch Christmas robbery,” Martin jokes. During her dress-up session, she fell in love with a pair of ’90s Saint Laurent bootcut trousers that went with her to Nashville.
Other things remain off-limits. “That is not appropriate to bring to college,” Paltrow has told her daughter of certain pieces. Martin gets it. “Obviously it’s fashion history and art, and God forbid anything ever happened to it.”
Even the things that stayed behind get a little play every now and again, though. For the New York premiere of Marty Supreme in December, Martin selected a sleek black Calvin Klein Collection tank dress that her mother had worn for the 1996 premiere of Emma. While Martin admits that her first red carpet was “the scariest thing in the entire world,” she also declares, “I’ve never felt more awesome in my life.” We’d hazard a guess there are many more to come.
In this story: hair, Bob Recine; makeup, Hannah Murray; tailor, Tae Yoshida at Carol Ai Studio Tailors.
Produced by Kitten Production.
