Original subtitles

[ music playing ]

[ camera clicking ]

Anna Wintour: We were thinking very long and hard

about what to do about our anniversary issue.

And I have made a very big thing over the years

of not celebrating anniversaries,

always making the point that one should look forward

rather than backwards.

The whole way that we look at fashion today

has shifted so dramatically.

There was a sense certainly when I first came to "Vogue"

that people were a little bit embarrassed by it.

Fashion is so universal now.

It has sort of been embraced by everybody.

But, to me, that's what's so interesting about fashion,

is that fashion is a reflection of our times.

Fashion can tell you everything that's going on in the world

with a strong fashion image.

And the people responsible

for the fashion images in "Vogue" are the fashion editors.

They have always been our secret weapon.

So it seemed to me that we could celebrate "Vogue,"

celebrate the history of women,

and also at the same time

celebrate these great editors.

They're really the producers, the directors,

the psychiatrists, the writers.

They are really the people that produce these great, famous images

that "Vogue" has such a rich history of.

Beautiful.

[ music playing ]

Narrator: When you're enjoying your favorite magazine,

you ever wonder what went into its making?

Come behind the scenes.

This is a meeting of the editorial staff to plan the new issue.

What does a fashion editor do?

Well, a fashion editor, uh...

is really...

Alors, a fashion editor

do a lot of work, meaning...

Not a lot. [ laughs ]

A fashion editor doesn't do very much.

Ahem.

Let me just think about this.

If you don't know now, I guess you never will.

Haven't you spoken to everybody?

I didn't even know that they existed.

I can't answer that question.

It would take too long.

Uh, it's about making an image.

But how we get there

is almost impossible to explain.

Essentially, what you're doing is collaborating

with a photographer to create an image

that reflects the fashion you're trying to capture

and also hold a mirror up to the zeitgeist of the moment.

Your memory of fashion really is

an editor's vision of fashion through a captured image.

It's iconic fashion images that you remember.

Your memory of fashion

really is fashion photography rather than fashion itself.

They give us access to another world.

They give us access to dreams.

Sarah Jessica Parker: You know, it's like reading a book

about a life that you'll never occupy.

But that's the beauty of being transported.

Well, it makes you dream.

I think when you read "Vogue,"

it's a big fantasy every month.

Kidman: It's our way of living in a different realm

for a short period of time.

And how beautiful is that?

Narrator: In the studio, the fashion editor

sees that those ideas are worked out

in terms of pictures.

Bowles: It was a more intimate process half a century ago,

but the fashion editor's role has remained exactly the same.

Narrator: The fashion editor

seeing that everything's just right--

model strikes a pose,

the photographer says, "Hold it,"

and the camera clicks.

Bowles: The extraordinary thing is that

each of the fashion editors at "Vogue"

has a completely different take on fashion,

a different personal aesthetic,

a very different sense of what they want

a fashion photograph to say and to express.

Oh, so you haven't written it?

Okay, okay. Right, right.

Bowles: Grace Coddington obviously

is the unassailable fashion editor

par excellence.

You know, I like kind of lighting it up

with a pink-colored pant or something.

Bowles: She has an extremely romantic,

sort of poetic vision in a way.

She likes her stories to have a narrative thread.

And then there's always going to be

something sort of magical about the way it's presented.

Wintour: She comes from a very small town in Wales.

Growing up, she used to adore "Vogue."

I mean, I don't think that anyone but Grace can create

the kind of photography essays that we do.

Bowles: She's unrelenting in the pursuit

of the image that she wants.

Not a redhead for nothing.

Coddington: It was my idea to do "Alice in Wonderland."

You know, all those fairy stories

are quite dark, actually.

They're all full of drugs and darkness and things like this.

So they're interesting to illustrate

because it's not just Walt Disney sweet.

It was Anna's idea to cast all the designers

as the characters.

Wintour: It was really the beginning of a time

when the designers were starting to become

such superstars themselves.

Now it's kind of matter-of-fact

that Marc Jacobs will get mobbed in the street.

It wasn't like that back then.

She wanted me to play

the caterpillar smoking hookah, right?

And I had torn a tendon in my finger,

so I was like, "Grace, I just went through this operation.

Do I really have--"

And she was like, "Well, there's no other dates

and you've got to do it."

Originally, I said no.

And then I got a call from Grace.

Then I got a call from Anna.

You know, you can never say no to Grace.

Coddington: We shot it with Natalia,

who's really a favorite model of mine.

Did my eyes just lit up? Did you see that?

I'm a big, big fan of Grace.

Just even watching her work is fascinating.

Wintour: It's really like storyboarding a film.

Grace looked at every possible book

of different drawings of "Alice in Wonderland,"

different editions of "Alice in Wonderland."

Vodianova: Grace sent me the books to read

before I did the shoot.

Months of preparation, of research,

of conversation,

and then I am the lucky one

who ends up in the picture.

Coddington: She's stepping through the mirror,

and somehow everything was back to front.

She's stepping through the mirror this way,

and all the ruffles and detail was here and the camera's here.

So she said, "Can we put this dress on back to front?"

And I said, "No, we can't, actually. No."

And, you know, I saw Nicolas Ghesquière,

from Balenciaga, going slightly pale.

Ghesquière: I remember Grace looking at me and said,

"Can you do something?"

And I was like, "Okay. How long do you give me?"

And she said, "Half an hour."

I said, "45 minutes?"

And it was a very fancy dress.

It was very intricate

with all these crazy ruffles in the back.

We went to the van.

He took it completely apart

and put all the ruffles on the other side.

And we shot it. But-- [ laughs ]

But it was-- oh, my God, it's back to front.

It was like-- ugh.

Well, it's the mishaps that make it fun

and brings you the surprise.

I mean, God forbid that a shoot would be perfect.

Grace wouldn't have anything to complain about.

Fashion is such a fairy tale and it is such a fantasy.

And it is about metamorphosis and sort of changing yourself

and playing a part that you want people to see.

Interviewer: Do you feel that there's something of a metaphor

about that fairy tale for the fashion world?

Not really, no.

No, sorry. You can't lead me there.

No. [ laughs ]

Wintour: Back when the magazine first began,

it was very much a social magazine

focusing on the women of society.

Shawn Waldron: Then, it was all illustration.

It really wasn't until Condé Nast bought it in 1909

that he changed the focus-- much more on women's fashion.

And he first introduced photography,

shooting not only society women,

but fashion as well.

Narrator: Lee Miller, another of the magazine's stars,

is busy on one of her features,

which bring readers glimpses of what's going on

in foreign lands.

Bowles: Lee Miller had had this extraordinary

relationship with "Vogue."

She was one of the most beloved models in the magazine.

And eventually, she'd take photographs herself.

She wasn't a fashion editor per se,

but her extraordinary career shows how front and center

women have always been in shaping the magazine.

Kidman: At one point, I was going to make a film about Lee Miller.

She came alive during the war.

What's actually tragic about it is that in that chaos

was when her art form came to life.

The most shocking image that I've seen

is the Lee Miller reporting that came back

when the second World War ended.

This is the Buchenwald concentration camp at Weimar.

Bowles: I guess it was kind of a brave decision of the editor

to publish those pictures.

They're certainly not the sort of images

one expected to see in a fashion magazine

and was a turning point in "Vogue's" history.

[ music playing, crowd cheering ]

It really marked a dramatic break with the past.

America was a very, very different place after the war.

Susan Train: It was just the photographer and me, and that was all.

No hairdressers, no makeup people,

no Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer epic production.

There was an outfit from Balenciaga

that we wanted to photograph,

and the girl is to run up the steps

and the scarf is to fly in the breeze.

Well, the scarf didn't fly

and the girl was tripping up and down.

I was desperate. I didn't know what to do.

So I finally tied a thread to the scarf

and I ran up the stairs behind the girl,

waving the scarf in the breeze.

Bowles: It really took Vreeland in the '60s

to shake things up most dramatically.

Train: Diana had a very vivid way of expressing herself.

It was all vibes and images and--

I mean, girls used to come out of her office--

"What did she say?"

Vreeland: I have that reputation of not being easy.

But naturally, I expect someone to do as much work as I do.

Anyone who thinks otherwise must be insane.

Bowles: Vreeland expresses the whole kind of giddy,

liberated, crazy,

"Youthquake" moment of the '60s.

I wanted to get where the action was.

Narrator: What's it like to fly in a jet?

Train: Jet planes had just come into our lives

and Diana decreed that the December issue

was going to be an issue of wonders.

Because in the old days, if you wanted to go to Egypt,

you didn't go for a weekend;

you went for several months.

But with the jets, you could go anyplace.

So the first trip we made was to India.

And, of course, India in September,

which was immediately after the rains, was a sauna bath.

We get to this Hall of Gods and Heroes,

and they didn't mind at all that we were climbing all over--

as long as we did--

the only thing was you couldn't wear shoes.

Leather, of course.

[ jet engine roaring ]

This is in Istanbul.

I seemed to have spent a great deal of time looking for camels.

Or Henry would say, "What we really need is a camel."

And, thank God, over the horizon

would come somebody leading a camel.

It was brand-new to show these places.

Nowadays, there's a road up to the top of this mountain.

But then it was an adventure.

And on the way down this terrible mountain,

a little corporal said, "Are you Peace Corps?"

I say grandly, "Oh, no, not at all.

We're 'Vogue.'"

Polly Mellen: We've got to have this jacket.

We've got to have this jacket.

We've got to have this sweater.

Mm.

I used to say I was the spoiled brat

of the fashion world, and I was.

[ laughs ]

But I worked very hard and loved it.

Oh, my God! [ laughs ]

Oh, God, Polly. I have to say the truth.

Brutal. It was brutal.

I mean absolutely brutal.

Bowles: The fashion department was just a no-go zone.

I mean, assistants would be in tears night after night.

Things would be hurled around the offices.

You know, Polly herself was

just an extraordinary powerhouse of pizazz

and she just understood perfectly

that balance of fashion photograph--

telling you about the clothes,

but telling you so much more at the same time.

When you've been through the "Polly Mellen school of sittings,"

you are never the same again.

Mellen: It was my first shoot at "Vogue"

and Mrs. Vreeland said to me is my passport in order?

"Because we want you to go to Japan with Dick Avedon."

And I was like, "Oh."

All the other editors wanted this plum sitting,

and it was given to me, this new person on the block.

It was called "The Great Fur Caravan."

I traveled with 15 trunks.

We were there for five weeks.

I mean, how fast are sittings done today?

Three days?

It was the most expensive trip ever done at "Vogue"

and never will happen again.

I love this picture.

Our lovely warrior Veruschka,

I mean, giving it her all.

I realized from the other editors

there was some jealousy.

I spoke to Mrs. Vreeland about it

and Mrs. Vreeland said, "Polly, who needs friends?

Get on with it."

There's a certain loneliness to being a fashion editor,

the most important thing being to bring back the pictures

that will make the difference.

I was called into Mrs. Vreeland's office

and Grace was standing by.

They embraced me and clapped.

And I cried.

I am quite an emotional person.

It was wonderful storytelling.

Beautiful Avedon pictures.

The clothes, as wonderful as they were,

never were bought by stores.

They were just not, in any sense of the word,

about today.

The reader was changing.

The clothes were changing.

Everything was changing.

And suddenly, fashion magazines--

nobody seemed to be buying them.

There's no question I thought everything we were doing was excessive.

I was extremely upset when Mrs. Vreeland left.

And so I talked about the office "going beige."

I gave the impression, I think,

now we're dealing with mediocrity.

Mirabella: When I became editor,

the whole staff was asked to come down and meet me.

And I talked about ease in dressing,

ease in motion.

I had a vision for-- something for a modern woman

in the middle of the Women's Movement.

Polly Mellen put up her hand and said,

"Grace, I'm the one person who doesn't understand

what you're talking about.

Could you go through it again?"

Bowles: Polly intuited immediately

that it was a very different era

with Grace Mirabella, who didn't want fantasy.

She wanted fashion stories that were informational,

that were really useful to the readers.

Mellen: What started out as a fragrance shoot--

and it turned into

a very sexual shoot.

When I would go to market in the West Indies,

I was always conscious that the women sat

in a dress pushed down between their knees.

And when you talk to somebody like Helmut Newton

about something like that, he takes it farther.

I mean, is she going to or has she done it?

Has it happened? What is the story here?

This is something that "Vogue" had never shown before.

The woman was always the object of desire, you know?

And suddenly, you had a woman who was clearly thinking about sex

and had powerful, lustful thoughts.

And it was kind of incredible

that that was sort of captured in a picture.

I mean, this all sounds so insane to be saying now,

but in the context of what came before,

it was really radical.

Trouble.

Here comes the trouble.

The famous picture in the baths.

Bowles: It was certainly a very, very unconventional way

of presenting clothes.

Bathhouses in the mid '70s had so many connotations.

I don't know where to begin, really, but...

Mellen: As each girl came onto the set,

it began to turn into something very special.

I mean, Deborah took each girl separately

and explained what she wanted.

There's a disconnect

from one girl to the other.

It's not happy.

It's very thought-provoking.

It's a little surreal.

We got a lot of letters

of people who didn't like them,

like my own family,

who thought they were unnecessary and unpleasant

and taking advantage of women

in a sad situation.

I never saw that.

And I think that sometimes

you have to take a risk.

My first day at "Vogue," I had been living in Paris.

I had my nail polish done in red

and I had a little Hermès bag at the time.

Everybody else was dressed in pants and flats.

Polly Mellen said to me, "Where do you think

you're going dressed like that?

You're going on a sitting with me

and you're going to be unpacking what we call "coffins,"

and you're not going to be able to run around

with red shoes and a white crêpe dress.

Go home and change."

When I started at "Vogue," it was the real era of the working woman.

I know that sounds so archaic now.

Wintour: In the '70s, the whole world

started to look at the American working woman

and what she symbolized--

change in the way everybody looked at the role of women.

All eyes really, I think, switched to the United States

and, because of that, American "Vogue."

So that was a huge, huge switch.

Women were coming to the working place.

Unfortunately, they were wearing sneakers with their suits.

I remember French people were laughing.

It was a caricature of an American woman for French people.

Wang: So we tried to encourage women

that you can feminize the suit.

You can still be stylish.

You don't have to look like a man.

So I ended up doing a lot of suits.

You know, you have to think a lot

to restyle a suit constantly.

There was a Doberman brought in

in this series to tug on the dress.

Well, he actually started to want to bite Christie.

This was not Photoshopped.

In those days, there was no such thing.

The trainer kept feeding him steak,

huge amounts of steak to the dog.

And then he grabbed the dress and ripped it to shreds.

Ripped Geoffrey Beene's heather grey jersey--

see, I still remember-- to shreds.

[ laughs ] That's always been the attitude

of "Vogue's" sittings editors--

anything or everything for the picture.

Jade Hobson: Our working woman

didn't look like any man in a grey flannel suit.

It was anything but boring.

I used to wear little binoculars

so I could check details--

you know, what the photographer was seeing.

I have a pair around my neck here.

And I think I had a camera, too.

Before I went to "Vogue," I loved taking photographs.

And, you know, as soon as I started working with the greats,

that was the end of that career.

This was a shoot with Chris von Wangenheim

and Patti Hansen.

We kind of grew up together, Patti and I.

Patti was our model of choice, I would say.

Everybody loved Patti.

Bowles: Patti Hansen was the embodiment

of what the magazine was all about--

the great gleaming white teeth, blonde-haired,

all-American, sporty, attainable beauty.

She was the golden girl next door.

It so happened that she had just

fallen in love with Keith Richards

and she decided to bring him along.

Patti Hansen: I've never taken a boyfriend on a trip.

You know, I tell my daughters, "Don't do that.

You know, do your job

and keep your personal life separate."

Here's Patti.

And Keith was right over here

with his guitar, strumming,

serenading her

as the shots were being taken.

Hansen: And it was romantic and it was crazy.

Um...

and I wish I had the photos from that time.

You're going to show me a shot?

You can just scroll through.

Oh, my goodness.

[ laughing ]

Oh, my goodness. I wish I looked like that now.

It could start the romance all over again.

I mean, they were so in love.

It was almost embarrassing.

Mellen: We were in Los Angeles

and we had already started the shoot.

We were doing fashion,

just kind of fashion pictures.

They were okay.

And I said, "Do you have any special things

that you like?"

And she said, "I like snakes."

I said, "You like snakes?"

So we called an animal place

and they brought that incredible snake.

I held the snake,

which is quite an experience.

And Dick said,

"Would you do it in the nude?"

And she said, "Yes, sure."

She laid down and the snake wound around her body

and up her body and got to her ear

and kissed her.

And he took the picture

and I had tears rolling down my cheeks.

I couldn't believe it.

It was magical, completely magical.

When the snake kissed her ear

and the tongue went into her ear,

the shoot was over.

I mean, we couldn't speak.

It was absolutely extraordinary.

I wish I hadn't put that bracelet on,

because I thought it became kind of a fashion statement.

And I thought the picture was something else.

I would have liked her to be completely nude.

Bowles: This, of course, was the time of Ronald Reagan

and the Christian right, so the Adam and Eve reference

couldn't have been more timely.

But I don't think this is a Biblical reference.

It's outrageously phallic

and throbbingly sexual, don't you think?

Yeah, it's not just about fashion.

It's about culture.

It's about Hollywood and liaisons.

Bowles: At the time, of course,

Elizabeth Taylor was promoting her perfume,

and so she was very committed to presenting

a very specific image of herself

encased in a sort of shellacked,

high Hollywood glamour.

When I spoke to her, I said, "We really wanted to do you

as you haven't been seen.

Casual, in sweaters.

And khakis or something on the beach.

The wind in your hair."

Well, the next day,

several limousines' worth

of Diors, hats, shoes, bags--

I mean, the total opposite of what-- of our concept.

I mean, she had a totally different idea.

Where passion rules, how weak does reason prove?

You'll see.

And, I mean, a gale wind could not move her hair.

It was kind of a nightmare.

For the very last shot, I said,

"Could we wrap a towel around your hair

and take you down to the beach?"

She said, "Okay."

Just before Wayne was about to shoot,

I grabbed the towel and pulled it off her hair,

and that's-- I mean, you can see it in her eyes.

She was so angry.

I mean, I really thought she was going to punch me.

And screamed, "How dare you?"

I thought, "Oh, my," you know. But she looked amazing.

So when she sent me a signed print,

I was floored.

It ended up being her favorite shot.

Thank God. [ laughs ]

Well, my father told me that's what I should do,

and I was very influenced by my father, so...

I was very interested

in what I saw going on in fashion,

which was a high/low mix of fashion

that was happening at the time,

that it was not trickling down from a very particular,

rarified couture sense of fashion,

that I saw young women in the street

dressing in a way that I thought was influencing the designers.

Fashion was being influenced by all sorts of different people

and culture and also of course, the street.

So I saw more as a trickle-up

rather than a trickle-down influence.

When I came to "Vogue,"

that's what I wanted it to reflect.

Of course it became a trend, you know?

I was mixing everything with real things that you wear every day.

I love the street.

No, no, take another pillow. Take another pillow.

Man: Looks good.

No, no. It doesn't work.

♪ Un, deux, trois, quatre... ♪

Now make-- no, no, no, no. Behind on the chair.

Just throw-- bing, bang.

de Dudzeele: I do the best for the picture.

I work...

[ laughs ] because I love.

- Is this fine? The feet? - Man: Feet-- lovely.

The frame looks good, you look good.

This is what I want to hear.

[ laughter ]

Carlyne. Oh.

Carlyne...

She's-- [ laughs ]

Carlyne's quite something.

Carlyne is more is more. Layer on the bangles.

You know, this kind of flamboyant French aristocrat

with a mouth like a trooper.

de Dudzeele: I love to mix cheap and expensive.

I adore this.

This is what you call the "Cerf style."

I mixed everything. This is my own salad.

I was doing a sitting, kind of "Breakfast at Tiffany's."

And I put a big Chanel bag under the--

in the street, a lady came and said,

"Mais,she have her evening dress.

Why you give her a big bag?"

Well, I said, "Because it's attitude."

Everything is about attitude for me.

Wintour: She was the editor that had the brilliance

to produce the very first cover that I ran on "Vogue,"

which was that amazing Lacroix couture T-shirt

with the embellished cross on it and a pair of Guess blue jeans.

You know, I remember when I've done the first issue for Anna.

I worked in Paris.

And I said, "If I put a jean

with this divine T-shirt, it will be perfect.

It's the street. You can wear couture in the streets."

I don't say-- it was not like,

you know, you have to have the hair done,

the makeup done to wear couture.

So I put a jean with this famous Lacroix T-shirt.

Wintour: When the cover actually went off to the printers,

they called the office and said, "Is it a mistake?"

They couldn't conceive that this actually could be

a cover of "Vogue" magazine.

Mais,why is scandale?

It's not a scandaleto put the couture with the jeans.

I mean, perhaps it was scandaleuxfor some people; not for me.

That really took "Vogue"

out of the studio and the strobe lights

and literally into the streets

and mixed things up.

Me, I love the street.

I love street.

Adore. Adore street.

I love the street.

Life is about mixing the thing

and to be divine in the street.

Voilà.

This was the idea of Peter.

He wanted to do the white shirts.

And you know I love accessories.

Me, I was in heaven.

So we shot this in LA. The girls looked divine, divine.

Easiness. Real!

Real.

This can be today.

It's no season.

Style don't have season.

Nothing is démodé when it's great pieces.

Nothing, nothing, nothing is démodé.

This picture came back and went straight to a drawer.

And when Anna arrived, I think six or eight months after,

she tell-- "Oh! I absolutely adore it!

It's divine! This is what fashion is.

This is the most modern thing."

I have some dim recollection of finding it in a drawer.

And I can't remember why it wouldn't run,

but what I loved about that picture

is that it just had so much joy in it.

And looking back, you saw that picture as a sort of key moment

when you looked at them not because of what they were wearing,

but because of who they were.

This was the beginning of a big deal.

Bowles: Well, Carlyne might not have invented the supermodels,

but she was shrewd enough to recognize

the opportunity that they represented.

The way fashion would become the stuff of gossip columns,

entertainment news, and celebrity.

It was an incredible moment in time

where fashion photography and fashion design

and the women all merged.

Bowles: It was a very, very high-octane,

va-va-voom, glitzy supermodel world.

Oh, no supermodel questions, please.

Oh, God.

So... [ sighs ]

Wintour: It was a sort of Rat Pack moment for the models.

You know, they were all friends

and they were being photographed everywhere they went

and enjoyed it.

I don't know why it happened.

I just remember that at the time,

a lot of actresses took a stance

that they wanted to be taken seriously for their art.

"Oh, I'm a movie star.

I don't want to demean myself by embracing fashion.

I'm just going to wear dirty sneakers and a pair of jeans.

But I'm a serious actress."

So because we didn't have the actresses,

we needed those superstars.

We needed the supermodels. And they loved it.

Evangelista: I mean, it was my life.

Besides on the pages of "Vogue," I wore it in real life.

I like glamour. Not afraid of it.

de Dudzeele: They were supermodels because they were

absolutely divine girls who loved fashion.

It was a dream. Voilà.

I think this is a turning point in my career,

this moment.

The fashion world discovered grunge.

I hate grunge.

This was the worst period of my life

because I hate grunge.

God, I hope that never comes back.

Coddington: We had a lot of vintage kind of clothes,

which is something that never appeared in American "Vogue."

This is pajamas.

Bolton: It was one of the first times I recall

of having street fashion in "Vogue."

I remember that, thinking that was so amazing

to see a street style,

a subcultural style represented in "Vogue."

I don't think I had any idea what I was getting into with that story.

You know, she may have said "grunge" to me at that time.

I probably blocked it out. [ laughs ]

But Grace is quite subtle with her--

it's not even so much as she ever pitches me an idea.

It's usually one word written on a piece of paper

or "I'm going to do this, Anna."

And she'd keep saying, "Oh, that grunge moment-- that was such a bad moment."

I mean, I can't see how walking around in a grunge-- you know...

[ laughs ]

My grunge days are long gone.

But that was such an important shoot.

And it was-- you know, you have to do something

that's going to really make people sit up and think

and be shocked and confused and angry

and "What is 'Vogue' doing?"

and canceling their subscriptions.

It's so raw.

It is confrontational, but at the same time romantic.

It's one of my favorite photographs.

My first day at "Vogue" was very funny.

I was called straight into a fashion meeting.

The first thing that I heard was,

"It's all about the butterfly."

It's about the butterfly necklace,

the butterfly shoe, the butterfly bag,

butterfly earrings, or butterfly prints.

It was all about the butterfly.

Throw your head back. Okay.

Come back, come back. Yes, beautiful.

- Okay. - Beautiful.

Nickerson: Fashion to me is a reflection of culture.

It's not just about whether everyone's wearing a trench coat.

It's there to report on the world at large.

A fashion editor tries, I suppose, to sense

what is going on in the world.

This is one of my favorite photo shoots.

It was-- the idea behind it was surveillance.

There were more cameras going up on the streets.

There were more cameras in shops.

We rented an apartment across from Condé Nast

so we could film from one building into another.

Bowles: Camilla's genius was to take

that perfect "Vogue" girl just caught unawares,

under surveillance, you know.

Nickerson: We're all being watched at some point.

But they could be chic while they're being watched.

[ laughs ] As they should be.

There was an anti-prettiness and an anti-perfection.

It was just capturing reality,

which was counter to a lot of what "Vogue" represented.

I'm constantly in a state of high anxiety.

This feels more...

less... maybe more.

I'm sorry. [ laughing ]

Bowles: She anguishes about every sitting.

Nothing is ever taken lightly.

Man: Literally, as soon as they're coming on,

- I'll start shooting. - Okay.

- Because I want that energy. - Okay.

Nickerson: I'm always hoping that on the day

something happens and you just hope that it will fly,

that it will become something that transcends time,

that you will remember.

You hope that it poses a question.

There is often a slightly dangerous undercurrent

to what she does.

Nickerson: That year, the collections--

there were a vast amount of incredibly high heels

that were sort of impossible to walk on.

And so,

we wanted to sort of discuss

how you became disabled by this.

They're meant to indicate

power and stature, and...

they leave you immobile.

[ laughs ]

But I love wearing them myself, yeah.

It's so graphic.

I think-- you know, she's so tall

and so beautiful up there, so framed.

And the light on the brace...

Some people who were disabled found it offensive,

but I thought that it actually was

sort of, kind of...

quite handsome in a way.

Parker: This was the last shoot at the Plaza

before it went into renovation.

Nickerson: It was about photographing in non-spaces--

hallways, elevators,

the places in between.

We were left basically alone in the Plaza in its shell,

in its empty corridors.

Nickerson: You know, she personifies New York, so does the Plaza.

It was so sort of "Blade Runner" in a way.

It was a dream come true.

Camilla wanted to be subversive,

maybe a little bit sneaky,

hide a message in the pages,

maybe mess with the institution a little bit.

There's one shoot that I will never forget.

When I was in the middle of working on it,

I stood in the studio surrounded by wooden ladders

filled with feather boas

and tables laid out with wigs.

It was just a coat story, but there was something quite magical about it.

It was just exactly as I dreamt

a fashion studio would look like.

That's the magic of walking into the planning room

and looking at a shoot for the very first time

is that you can be so surprised.

And that's what one wants. One wants to be surprised.

Posnick: Of course I'm nervous on every shoot.

Even if I'm doing a still life of a mouse, I'm nervous.

If I don't have a picture in my mind of the final image,

then I know the sitting isn't going to work.

Bowles: Nothing is left to chance.

Phyllis is very, very firm and determined,

and she gets these extraordinary results.

With Tebow, I need all the shorts,

all the warm-up things.

Bowles: Her role at the magazine is very, very different

because other editors are doing epic 20-plus-page stories

and you can tell a narrative.

Phyllis, with her photographers,

has to create a single image

that's going to stop you in your tracks.

The sittings I do-- we're illustrating an idea.

It's skin care, it's health,

it's diet, it's hair color,

so one has to think of a way to surprise

and make the reader stop and look and read the article.

Now this was the result of some new moisturizers,

and they were all white.

And that's all I had to work with.

We got gallons of cream brought down from a dairy

in upstate New York.

She was sitting in a big tub.

One of Penn's assistants stood over her

and Penn would say, "All right, go."

And then he'd pour the cream on her head

from a pitcher.

We could do two or three,

and then we'd have to clean her off and start over

and also give her a rest.

You know, we couldn't just torture her all day.

Bowles: She's so fastidious in her approach

and she's really the consummate perfectionist.

I mean, if you're going to do a bee lighting on a lip

to illustrate the concept of bee-stung lips,

Phyllis is really going to spend months

visiting every apiary in the state,

casting just the right bee

and just the right pair of lips.

Posnick: So we imported some bees,

which were live,

and had a very brave model

and put the bee on her lip.

Oh, she was fearless.

At one point, the bee was sitting on her mouth like that

and she just stuck out her tongue

and had the bee on her tongue.

Casting is very important in these pictures

because you have to have somebody who is willing

to sacrifice themselves for that picture.

It's not good to have an unhappy model.

We want them to be happy and feel beautiful.

Seriously. I'm saying that like it's a joke,

but it's really important.

Like this.

That needed a model who knew how she looked

with a football on her face

because she had to move her head or tilt it.

And her shoulders moved so that you felt that there was a person there

and that it wasn't just a dead body.

We were doing an article on fear of aging,

and we wanted two models that looked the same.

They had an expression, but nothing moved.

And it looked kind of okay.

So then Steven said, "Why don't we try them without the faces?"

And when we took the faces off,

that was the picture.

They came from California and they were very, very expensive.

They come with interchangeable heads.

Anna was either going to like it or hate it.

Sometimes walking into the planning room, I'm shocked.

And I'll say, "We can never run these pictures.

They're too out there."

Posnick: We shot that with a real dermatologist,

and Anna felt that he was giving her

a lethal injection.

I didn't feel that way, but...

if she did, other people would.

Your first reaction is really important.

Wintour: I have to present every issue to the corporate floor,

and I could see them having no concept

that those were not real models.

And that really was the surprise

and the strength of those photographs--

that you weren't quite sure.

Bowles: For decades, Phyllis really proved herself

the perfect Penn whisperer,

and she was able to coax him to photograph people

that he might have resisted.

Penn hated movie stars because when he did a portrait,

he really wanted to get past

the face that the person presents to the public,

and that's very difficult with actors.

He kept saying no to photographing her.

So we talked about it and talked about it,

and he finally agreed to do a portrait of her

another year later.

I just remember climbing up the stairs to his studio.

It was very, very quiet

and everyone's sort of whispering.

Posnick: There couldn't be anyone else in the eyeline of the subject.

Kidman: We talked a little bit, but a lot of it

is in how you communicate quietly without words.

Posnick: I was behind a curtain, listening.

I mean, they fell in love.

It was so beautiful to watch it.

And she just gave up all of that "actor."

Alber Elbaz: I hated it.

I looked at it and I said, "Ugh, I really don't like that picture."

I sent it to my mother.

My mother called me back and she said,

"Alber, why do you look so sad?"

And I understood at this moment

that Irving Penn did not take a picture of me, but he X-rayed me.

Goodman: We can scan these guys

and then I'll just amend this one.

Wintour: You have to understand that with the great fashion editors

that we have working at "Vogue," it's not a job to them.

It's who they are, and I think that's really maybe clearest

in the case of Tonne Goodman.

If I close my eyes and think about

an American style, I would say Tonne.

Bowles: She's all about stripping things away to their essence.

You know, I didn't start out pursuing a career in fashion.

I went to art school and I was--

I studied painting and drawing.

Prior to that, I modeled when I was in high school

with Mrs. Vreeland at "Vogue."

Wintour: If you look at those pictures today,

you see this clean, minimal, gorgeous young woman

who couldn't be anything but a young American girl.

My style is very recognizable

because it's founded on simplicity,

a classic approach to dressing.

A lot of it connects with my life.

I wear a uniform, essentially, all the time.

I wear white jeans, a shirt, flat shoes.

The practicality that I require from my life

shows up in the photographs, I think.

And I think that that's probably one of the earmarks of American fashion.

American fashion is very practical.

This is a shoot with Steven Klein.

She is on the sidewalk, putting something

into a deposit slot of a bank.

The car is on the sidewalk, aggressively positioned.

Elbaz: I mean, it's all very right. It's very sharp.

It's very minimal and yet very emotional.

It's an emotional picture in its very cold way.

You wouldn't think it's emotional, but I find it very emo--

I think it's-- it's one of my favorites, actually.

I really adore this photograph.

Here's another example of it.

There's nothing random about his photograph.

It is not a frivolous moment.

But it really is a frozen moment, literally.

Time is such a precious part of our life.

And to be able to freeze a moment,

whether it is conjured or whether it's spontaneous,

is a kind of a gift.

Tonne does represent

really the heart of the American woman

and she understands that particular American aesthetic.

Don't forget, a lot of the editors at "Vogue" are British.

So I'm the American editor

and I do a lot of the very classic things for "Vogue"

because it's the kind of niche that they need me for,

but I can do other things, actually.

When I came there in '99,

most of the covers were models.

And between 2000 and 2002,

it did a complete flip.

It's a completely different ball game

photographing with a celebrity than it is with a model.

Wintour: Dealing with celebrities,

you know, you just need to be...

uh, very calm.

[ camera shutter clicking ]

Beautiful.

She can take the most demanding celebrity

and turn them into a "Vogue" cover in a way that nobody else can.

Goodman: Gaga has such a strong sense of herself.

She was a perfect candidate for a "Power" issue.

I think it's fair to say there was a little bit of a buzz about Lady Gaga,

so it was arranged that she would come in

and meet some editors and meet Anna.

There was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing about the appointment

and I thought, "Oh, my goodness, she's going to be late."

You know, is one of those people that are always late.

But she arrived on the dot

and she was dressed like a nun in a full white cotton robe.

And she just had a little hat on that said "Vogue" on it.

With the G kind of framing her face

and the U and the E going off in this direction.

The V and the O here.

Um, so,

I really thought, "This girl means business."

A few months later, she was on the cover for the first time.

So she said, "Somehow I would like to make a kind of subtle reference

to 'Vogue' magazine and Anna Wintour."

And if you notice, you can't say it doesn't look like Anna.

The hair is like Anna. I adore this photograph.

I think it captures her and it captures "Vogue."

Oh.

Well, it just-- it looks so ugly.

Is it a boy or a girl?

Man: It's a girl.

- It's Lady Gaga. - Babs Simpson: Well, I don't think it's sexy.

At all.

Do you?

Let me see it again. It's interesting.

You know how old I am?

100 next year.

The look that I had then was--

my hair was very simple.

Her hair scraped unforgivingly back

into a tight little sort of ballerina chignon

and pearls.

Yeah, I've had them for as long as I can remember.

And it's sort of an impeccable, understated, elegant style.

I very often had a bird on my head.

Live bird.

I used to sit in the corner and do needlework.

Otherwise, you'd go crazy with boredom.

You know, because some photographers took forever.

Bowles: She's very self-effacing and says she just sat back

in the corner quietly doing her needlepoint,

but I think there's a little bit more to it than that

because the pictures are really potent.

It's not just a beautiful girl standing there,

perfectly dressed in front of the camera.

Simpson: The day we got this, she didn't show up.

We waited and waited and waited and waited

and waited and waited and finally went to Disneyland.

She did show up the next day,

and she was perfect from then on.

But there was this terrible hairdresser

who kept giving her ice water, which turned out to be vodka.

She was obviously somebody doomed.

And, of course, as you well know,

she was dead within the month.

[ chatter ]

- Miss Simpson! - Hello, my dear.

You are quite the celebrity around here.

How about that?

It's the same sort of viewing as if Babs is in the chair.

I want you there.

Posnick: I think none of us really love having our picture taken.

- Leibovitz: Okay, Camilla, you get to be bad girl again. - All right.

You're my favorite bad girl.

She-- she's the new bad girl.

- You're the-- - I'm the old bad girl.

You're the original bad girl.

Mellen: Get down low.

Nickerson: I'm so honored and shy.

Mellen: I have been summoned.

Nickerson: It will be an amazing photograph.

Goodman: Preserving a moment is magic.

Leibovitz: Polly, I'm going to put you here.

- I know. Elbow-- just elbow her. - Ah!

Bowles: What kind of a family are they?

Um, when I first came to "Vogue,"

the fashion department was possibly

one of the most alarming places on the planet.

- Okay, hang in there. Hang in there. - Ah!

[ camera shutter clicking ]

Bowles: I mean, Polly Mellen

and Carlyne Cerf--

such formidable characters.

- Women: Wind! - [ laughter ]

Bowles: They were very, very, very much larger-than-life,

flamboyant, opinionated women.

I haven't even got to Grace.

Wintour: It is a family. It is a family.

It's a slightly dysfunctional family,

but it's also a very close and warm and loving family.

Tears? Oh, what, are you going for a Barbara Walters moment?

[ man laughs ]

Wintour: Genius is the word I would use.

They all have genius in them

and they all have a deep, deep understanding

of what makes a great photograph.

Leibovitz: Thank you very much. That was very, very nice.

- [ clapping ] - Mellen: Thank you, Annie.

[ music playing ]

♪ Are you Peace Corps?

♪ Oh, no, not at all, we're "Vogue" ♪

♪ "Vogue," "Vogue," "Vogue" ♪

♪ It's all about the butterfly ♪

♪ The butterfly, the butterfly ♪

♪ It's all about the butterfly ♪

♪ The butterfly, the butterfly ♪

♪ Several limousines' worth ♪

♪ Of Diors, hats, shoes ♪

♪ I mean, I really thought she was going to punch me ♪

♪ And screamed, "How dare you?" ♪

♪ "How dare you? How dare you? How dare you?" ♪

♪ Punch me, punch me, punch me, punch me ♪

♪ It's all about the butterfly ♪

♪ The butterfly, the butterfly ♪

♪ It's all about the butterfly ♪

♪ The butterfly, the butterfly ♪

♪ Everything's fashion

♪ I mean, you're fashion ♪

- ♪ This is from street - ♪ Street

- ♪ I mean, you're fashion - ♪ Street

♪ That needed a model who knew how she looked ♪

♪ With a football on her face ♪

♪ Real!

♪ Real

♪ I very often had a bird on my head ♪

♪ I can-- I can do other things ♪

♪ No, sorry, you can't lead me there ♪

♪ Is it a boy or a girl? ♪

♪ It's all about the butterfly ♪

♪ The butterfly, the butterfly ♪

♪ It's all about the butterfly ♪

♪ The butterfly, the butterfly ♪

♪ Adore, adore

♪ Style don't have season ♪

♪ Nothing is démodé when it's great pieces ♪

♪ Pieces, pieces, pieces ♪

♪ Nothing, nothing, nothing is démodé ♪

♪ Voilà, voil, voilà ♪

♪ Easiness, real, real, real, real! ♪

♪ It's all about the butterfly ♪

♪ The butterfly, the butterfly ♪

♪ It's all about the butterfly ♪

♪ The butterfly, the butterfly ♪

♪ It's all about the butterfly ♪

♪ The butterfly, the butterfly ♪

♪ It's all about the butterfly ♪

♪ The butterfly, the butterfly ♪

♪ It's all about the butterfly ♪

♪ The butterfly, the butterfly ♪

♪ It-it-it's all about the butterfly ♪

♪ The butterfly, the butterfly. ♪