In Vogue: The Editor's Eye

 Vogue is probably the most iconic fashion magazine, but do we really know what goes into creating such an inspirational collection of fashion page? In Vogue: The Editor's eye takes a look deeper into the world of Vogue, especially into the work which the editors, both past and present, do in order to create this piece of art work. 

 

Babs Simpson, Grace Coddington, Polly Mellen, Camila Nickerson and Tonne Goodman are the amazing, iconic fashion editors behind this astonishing fashion magazine from the past to the current day. Although they all have a very unique idea as to what their role was as a fashion editor, they can all agree that it was a stressful (and sometimes lonely) job role to fill, having to help with the production of powerful fashion images which not just look pretty, but tell an amazing story. Fashion imagery has gone way past the studio images, and now have to offer more to consumers in order to appeal to the newer, more demanding audience. After planes were available for travel, Vogue has constantly used culture and location in their fashion shoots, but as this documentary shows, this is just the beginning...

One of the shoots from the documentary which really stood out to me was one that current fashion editor, Grace Coddington, helped to create. Using Alice in Wonderland as her theme, the images are very enchanting and mystical. But not is all as simple as taking images of a pretty girl in a blue dress. After deciding the theme, Grace spent months reading every single word of the story, analysing every single illustration from the book and even giving the novel to the lucky model, Natalia Vodianova, to read to ensure she really understood the narrative behind the shoot. This preparation all combines to allows the photographers, stylists, directors and models to really live the storyline and creates inspiring connotations behind these images. But with this shoot, Anna Wintour came up with a cunning idea, adding even more depth (and a sense of humour) to the shoot. They decided to cast some of the worlds most influential designers such as Marc Jacobs and Karl Lagarfeld as the character in the novel, really adding a new concept to the story; plus an added extra for those fashion conscious readers who live for these designers work!

I really enjoyed these aspects of the documentary, and thought it was really inspiring to see the effort that goes into creating these images. I loved learning about the history behind the magazine, and it's really great to compare these new images to the older issues, where the first colour image was used in 1932. It definitely shows that technology has allowed us to do magnificent things, and I think that this added tool which is colour, has allowed us to intensify emotions and story lines further in fashion photography. 

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