Absolutely Fashion: Inside British Vogue - is anyone watching?

[Queenbean]

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I really enjoyed this. Mary McCartney made me think of all those MN threads on how to look expensive and well groomed - she just had 'it'. That black shirt was glorious and I just know that if I owned it, it would be crinkled and faded within minutes

I enjoyed the understated presentation - I think the less the presenter said, the more scope it gave the staff the fill the silence. They were all quite guarded and not sure what they would be allowed to say. It was interesting that Alex wouldn't disclose the rival nagazine featuring Rihanna but hadn't informed her staff not to so Jaime(?) just trotted out with it.

Magazines are a funny business. All those people fretting over one cover or another as if it really matters - it is a transient product, destined for the recycling bin and most of the population won't notice or care who is on the cover. The only people it matters to are in their own industry.

That said, I thought the flag cover was more attention grabbing so would have been more inclined to notice it. Can't say I care about Moss wearing Jagger's old clothes, but fashion mags are a bit up their own arses at times.

I liked the fact that Alex didn't look too fashioned victimy, she looked comfortable and stylish. Anna Wintor looks like a praying mantis .

I enjoyed it, I really liked The September Issue too. Strangely although I am a massive frump with zero interest in fashion I love these kind of things - does anyone remember The Model Agency?

There is a trend for documentary interviewers to have boring, rather slow-witted delivery; there is a woman who does it that I can't bear to listen to. I think they might be trying to be Louis Theroux but they don't have the charm and intelligence that he does.

The Model agency - was that about Storm? It was horrendously bitchy.

I remember reading an article somewhere about the contrast between US Vogue and UK Vogue. In the States, it's encouraged to look like Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. So they all had blow outs in their lunch break and looked aggressively groomed and expensive. Whereas in London that look is rather scorned, cos London style is meant to be laid back cool. So you just throw on something shapeless from Cos and dash some red lippie on. On the other hand, the US girls would visit the UK office and be horrified at how scruffy everyone looked, lol.

I desperately want to know what was that expensive lilac scented mascara that Mary was talking about as her eyelashes looked amazing in the car.

The women in the office all seemed dull and boring and couldn't even articulate a sentence . I was surprised that so many women seemed to have been dumb downed by an over bearing woman boss who hardly smiled or encouraged any creativity . Victoria Beckham seemed nervous talking to get and started talked nervous twaddle . A tshirt with a picture on it apparently had an " Andy Warhol" vibe going on .

I thought the workers seemed a bit dull, too. Not much creativity going on, it seemed. Maybe that's a bit harsh.

However I doubt Shulman would like the challenge of too many creative types around. Even Jaime and the other woman seemed a bit quiet. Shulman to me came across as a woman who gets her way.

All those people fretting over one cover or another as if it really matters - it is a transient product, destined for the recycling bin and most of the population won't notice or care who is on the cover. The only people it matters to are in their own industry.

Well, no, if you have the wrong cover the mag sells badly and your job is on the line. Covers are vitally important. I was amazed those dimwits couldn't see the non-flag cover was better.

I've worked a bit with Ms Shulman, she is freaking humourless and terrifying but she is a pretty good editor in terms of keeping Vogue alive in a time of huge challenges from bloggers etc. I know she resisted a documentary for decades and she wasn't exactly gracious when eventually bullied into it, as she made abundantly obvious.

I hated the presenter, who was totally trying to do a Theroux and failing. He was a wimp with KM and the snide 'I'm an ingenue' tone annoyed me. Either ask decent questions and do your research, or don't do the documentary at all.

I expect Alexandra will live to regret this. There are a log of clueless people working in that office. Only jaime and lucinda come off well.
It does smack of women who have connections getting the job, rather than based on talent. The magazine is bloody awful and has been for a while. I like Paris vogue better, for the pictures anyway.

That's kind of my point mum. It matters to them but not really to anyone outside their industry.

A very competitive industry where choosing the right cover really matters sales wise.

Of course it matter to people outside the industry.

I'm not in the industry, I buy Vogue and I am influenced by the cover, same as hundreds of thousands of other readers.

Are you really influenced by a magazine cover, beyond whether it catches your attention enough to buy it? Obviously that decision to buy makes a difference to the people who work for conde nast but in the great scheme of things it is just a fashion magazine, a transient product that no one outside of the Vogue office will remember long term. It won't affect people's lives.

in the great scheme of things it is just a fashion magazine, a transient product..............It won't affect people's lives.

You can say that about many industries thought can't you? Very few are life and death but that doesn't mean they don't affect lives. Fashion is a billion dollar industry. And times are tougher than ever for print media, so choosing the right cover image really matters because maintaining and improving sales really matters.

Well, I'm obviously influenced enough to buy the magazine, and yes, I know it's transient. So what?

It's not all about the big issues, peoples lives, there is time and place in life, mine for example, for something frivolous.

Having said that, a good visual does influence some work I do.

I enjoyed it. AS was different to how I had imagined her but I guess to be a long serving editor you have to be pretty ruthless. Also I agreed with her that as the boss it isn't really your role to be friends with your staff.

Don't get me wrong, I love magazines. I buy far too many. Was gutted when 'Eve' and 'She' went - it is a mystery to me how they failed but crap like Grazia survives. I still don't think they are important though.

Given that I love mags, it does sadden me that times are tough for print media but really they have done it to themselves. I remember when Cosmo and Marie Claire actually had someting to say. Maybe I just getting old and it is me rememberi f through rose tinted specs the times when articles in women's magazines were long and detailed. So many times now, I come across something I think is good only for the article to be so short it barely scratches the surface or in a mag costing the best part of a fiver there is only one or two things I really want to read.
There is a massive assumption that everyone is interested in pop stars and models and it seems to be the same faces over and over again.

Elspeth I think the mascara was Guerlain

Somebody up thread said people in the fashion business are so up themselves.
ABSOLUTELY

I can't abide Anna Wintour. Emperors new clothes.
AS doesn't seem that bothered how she looks.

In my long winded way, I think they have all become so serious and inward looking and focussed on the money to the point where they have lost sight that what they doing is sucking the life out of their product

I thought it just seemed like a horrible place to work - the younger of the two executive assistants looking furtive while saying that she and the other one are there to make AS's life easier by taking the temperature in the office - " checking the weather", and acting as AS's eyes and ears.

I got the impression that AS has something of a siege mentality and that awful staged scene with Nicholas Coleridge who had obviously been briefed to support the Ed's choice of cover (she was right IMO-much more commercial) was an interesting indication that she felt she needed to put two fingers up to the staff.

It wasn't a million miles away from The Devil Wears Prada, but AS not nearly as well dressed as Meryl.

I just cannot imagine a world in which I'd buy Vogue. Why would you? What do you get from it?

I know that sounds mean but I genuinely cannot fathom it for the life of me.

Seriously, you cannot fathom that some people are interested in fashion?

Goodness me.

You don't sound mean. You just sound deeply unimaginative.

Can you understand why people buy car magazines, music magazines, the National Geographic?

It was an odd documentary, everyone seemed either annoyed or terrified whilst being filmed and questioned! Kate Moss came across as quite child like, not at all like I expected!

Fair enough, Squoosh! Tho I'd say those mags you mention possibly have more relevance to actual real life - the pics in Vogue are fantastical, no?

I like your reply tho - definitely made me think about it slightly differently and maybe one day I'll pick up a copy and find it interesting, too.

I think most magazines are about fantasy. The woman buying Vogue wishing she could afford all the clothes, the man buying Men's Health wishing he could have the same abs as the bloke on the cover, the person reading car magazines lusting after the latest Ferrari.

An hour of escape!