THE NEW MAKERS: TONI CORNELL

It’s a tough time to be a rebel. There’s not a lot we haven’t seen, and anything we might wish to see, or dream up, is less than a click away. What’s an iconoclast to do? Making something is a good start. Real things, not just content, can exist in the world, turning heads and changing minds. These 10 creatives—all in Chanel Fine Jewelry for this portfolio—might not have permanent solutions, but they are just getting going. What they’ve accomplished so far sets them apart and raises the bar for what’s next.

“When I was 12, I learned how to play Diamonds & Rust by Joan Baez,” says Toni Cornell. She was encouraged to do so by her dad, the late Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell, who told her, “You need to learn how to fingerpick” (which led her to Baez). Cornell’s songs, like Little Bitch (“A random diss track,” she confides) and Campari, could qualify her as an emerging bedroom pop artist, but she’s not having that. “I don’t even believe in genres,” she says. Growing up in New York, Cornell was drawn to musical theater until she was a preteen, when her interest shifted to artists like Queen.

“I love more up-tempo music, but I want to keep it timeless, and I also want to keep it big,” she says, adding that she’s up for the challenge. “Now that I’m putting music out there, there’s nothing that makes you feel more naked.” Onstage, however, she feels emboldened in Victorian- style frocks, and that power of connection transmits to her fans.

Recently, while performing Little Bitch in LA, she clocked a group of young women vibing to the music up front: “This is the whole point,” she says. That, and sincerity. “The piece of advice [my dad] would always give me is to not put myself in a box,” she says. “The business side of music is very much ‘You need to be branded.’ But I don’t believe in that.”