It was late on a rainy London afternoon, Kate Hudson was really getting wet, and she couldn't have cared less. "We are in England," she said gaily. "It rains. That has to be one reason the pubs are always full." At that, she dashed across a quiet mews in Belgravia and into the Nags Head, a 233-year-old vestige of imperial Britain not far from Hyde Park. A couple of patrons shifted their gaze when she entered. But only for a moment. Hudson never looks bad, but that day she was dressed like any other hippie chick on vacation: Her blonde hair was in a bun; she wore jeans tucked into boots, a tiny white T-shirt, and a plaid bandanna wrapped around her throat. A few of her fingernails were painted fire-engine red, and the rest weren't painted at all.

"Pale Rider," by Michael Specter and photographed by Mario Testino, has been edited for Style.com; the complete story appears in the July 2006 issue of Vogue.

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