Episode 2 Absolutely Fashion: Inside British Vogue

So this has never happened before in your career?

No. Never anything this dramatic.

Would it have impacted your sales, do you think?

I don't think it would have been

helpful to have two covers on the news stand

at the same time of the same person within the same market.

Which is the publication that is competing with you?

I think it's Vogue in America.

It's quite a sort of combative move,

on her behalf, to bring her edition earlier.

Yeah, I suppose.

I'm actually interviewing Anna Wintour tomorrow.

She won't know about it.

Please don't say anything.

We were not going to talk of that. You said we weren't

-going to talk about this any more.

-Oh, OK.

-Sorry.

-No, but you did.

-All right. Sorry.

February the 23rd, 2016.

Sometimes, I wonder if a woman

might have been a better choice to make this series.

Alex phoned this morning in a furious mood,

threatening to pull the whole project.

She's angry that I might talk to

Anna Wintour is about the Rihanna cover when I

interview her today.

She thinks I'm about to betray confidential information.

But the last thing I want to do is get on the wrong side

of the editor in chief of British Vogue.

So, you were at British Vogue for a while.

-What memories have you got?

-Very short time!

What memories have you got of that time?

Well, I had a lot of fun, you know.

I came here very determined to bring an American spirit

and an American sensibility to the pages.

At that time, there was no online.

I look back on that time and think, how crazy was I?

I mean, what's so wonderful about what Alexandra does

and what the editors before her have done

is they've really celebrated

the British spirit, and that's what each Vogue

should do, is represent the country that they

are being published in.

You know, I always use a

quote that Ralph Lauren gave me many, many years ago.

You can't be too hot and you can't be too cold.

You just have to be part of the conversation.

Vogue is a worldwide name

and being steward of that name means just that,

finding that balance between the future of fashion

and what's existing right now.

And Alexandra does that with enormous intelligence

and integrity.

I think... I hope she stays forever.

January the 25th.

When you think of a fashion icon, you wouldn't automatically

think of a man who has a white ponytail and wears

fingerless leather gloves, would you?

But that's the thing about Karl Lagerfeld.

He defies classification.

Alex has invited me to a private meeting with him.

So what's happening with these guys?

She's always having one-to-ones with the top designers.

She gets to see their collections the night before a show.

I've been told Chanel's haute couture

outfits cost over £10,000 each.

This person has to be presented to Karl before doing anything.

OK. Fine, fine, fine.

-I've got to meet him personally?

-Yes. With the camera down.

-Oh, right. OK.

-It's more polite to be introduced before the show.

Oh, OK. Right, fine.

-Really?

-This one is a very good one.

-So beautiful, Karl.

-Quite right.

So it's a tribute to nature, yes?

We've suddenly got very ecologically...

-That is so pride.

-What is made of?

-They are like little bits of wood.

-It's wood?

-Paper-thin, yeah.

-It's wood?

-I love it that

you've got the beads down, the golden beads down here.

-It's incredible.

-It's incredible. We are showing...

-Oh, wow.

That's like paper embroidery.

Can you walk until I see the length?

It's incredible.

Can I just ask you one quick question?

Have you known Alex a long time?

I understand not one word with all the noise here.

Oh, sorry. Have you known Alex a long time?

-Quite a long time.

-Since she was a baby.

-100 years!

-Quite a long time but,

you know, we are always about today, not about yesterday.

Exactly. Karl's a great one for

-looking to the future, aren't you?

-Yeah.

In fashion, the future is six months, six months, six months.

That's not created on the past.

Because I didn't know if you liked cats.

-I have a cat. I like my cat.

-You want a Choupette?

-I'd love a Choupette as well.

-You want a Choupette?

-Yeah.

-Good.

-Oh, thank you very much.

-Is that your cat?

-Yes.

-Karl loves his cat.

This is the hologram in a rock crystal.

Of Choupette? No!

-Yes.

-Can I see?

-It's here.

-Oh, my God.

-It's your cat!

-What's that picture of?

-His cat.

-It's my cat.

Choupette. That's unbelievable.

-Alexandra.

-Now, Karl, I've got to

get you to London for our birthday, one way or

another, otherwise I'll have to have Choupette instead.

How's it going back at base?

You seem a bit like you've got a lot on your mind.

I'm in a car with the film crew, late for a show.

What's up?

Yeah. Have you got any news?

'Tonight, Alex left in quite a brusque way

'after our filming with Karl Lagerfeld.'

No, but they can't hear what you are saying, and I'm

about to hang up.

'Sometimes, I feel like I'm treading on eggshells.'

Oh, OK. No, I'll ring you in a moment, then.

I'm going to get out of the car in a second anyway, OK?

I'll ring you right back. OK. Bye.

All right. Listen, I've got to go, all right?

'Mind you, in just four months, the centenary

'issue of the magazine will be published,

'there is an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery

'and a huge gala dinner will take place in Hyde Park.

'This must be the most intense six months of her career.'

January the 26th.

Today, I hung out with Sarah Harris.

Sarah is one of Vogue's rising stars.

She attends all the shows and then she writes reviews

of the collections for the magazine.

I was surprised how famous she is.

She's got a huge Instagram following.

If you look at her profile,

you see the quintessential glamorous life,

exotic sandy beaches, skiing in the Alps, sports cars.

That was a bit crazy,

being photographed by all those photographers, wasn't it?

Yes, it can get a bit intense,

I suppose, when there's quite so many of them.

Do you... Is there a part of you that quite

-likes being noticed like that?

-I don't mind it,

like, in the afternoon, I don't mind it,

because I feel like my face has woken up a bit,

but I don't know, in the morning it's a bit intense,

when you're kind of half asleep

and not so keen on having your picture taken.

So that's a photograph that is already gone up on Twitter.

-On Instagram.

-On Instagram?

Yeah. They posted it.

I remember really loving shoes

from a really young age and being really excited to get,

you know, new term school shoes

and going to Russell & Bromley

and I used to obsess over keeping them clean

and pristine and I'd keep them in the box.

I'd wear them for a day, clean them off.

I was, like, five years old. Put them back in the box.

And then, yeah, as soon as they got a grass stain on them,

I'd be devastated.

And I'm still a bit like that with my clothes and my shoes.

I really like these Manolos. I love those.

I'll have those forever, wear them forever.

I really like these Celines...

..with the gold toe cap.

My uniform is really pretty much jeans and a shirt,

more or less, every day at work.

Or jeans and a T-shirt or jeans and a cashmere jumper.

Have you got a lot of jeans?

Yeah. I've got, um...

More than ten pairs?

80? 82?

-82 pairs?

-Yeah.

-Of jeans?

-Yeah.

-I've got a lot.

-82 pairs of jeans?

Yeah, and I try to sort of

make a cull and throw lots out but they're

so kind of imbued with memories, you know, it's

hard to get rid of them.

But I do fill up bin liners probably four times a year

and take them down to the charity shop.

I'll bring you the Vogue thing. So let's start, then.

February 10th. I bought the last ever copy of the men's

magazine FHM today.

It has Holly Willoughby on the cover.

Like all publications,

Vogue can't just rely on the magazine any more.

The website is key. The online team communicate

with a new generation of Vogue reader through Snapchat,

Instagram and Twitter.

But they're banned from using modern social media parlance

like emojis and exclamation marks.

Then there's Vogue Video, the online channel.

Today, they're shooting a feature called Inside My Wardrobe.

It felt a bit cannibalistic, me stood there filming them,

filming themselves.

Hi, everyone. And, so, just to have a recap on

the state of play in all these centenary endeavours.

Rather frighteningly, it's sort of becoming real.

'It's funny being in a place

'where so much emphasis is on the future because,

'ironically for Alex, her immediate future is being dominated

'by the past and the multitude of events lined up to celebrate it.'

Is there any thought, this being our centenary year,

I think, have we not got a Vogue 100 T-shirt?

Is that right or not?

-We are asking...

-We've got a Vogue everything.

What I'm doing is approaching four or five different

young British designers to see if they would all

do 100 limited-edition T-shirts.

-Right.

-Couldn't Topshop do it? Just so that, I just

think the exclusive product is very high-end

and we need to speak to a wider audience, really,

so maybe we have to have something from a...

I think you get one brand to do one T-shirt.

Topshop, we've spoken to before.

I don't think it should be Topshop, actually, even if it's one brand.

-Or H&M?

-Well, I don't know, I mean,

if we're going to just do one T-shirt,

we probably, although we want it to be at a lower price point,

we probably want it to be quite a special T-shirt,

so not just, you know, a sort of Fruit of the Loom

T-shirt with Vogue 100 written on it.

That's why I thought the designer ones would be kind of special

because they could all do their own interpretation, you know.

'This afternoon, I received a call out of

'the blue from the Vogue press office.

'They've asked me to film an event at the end of

'April but they won't tell me what it is.

'All I know is that Alex is going to be making an announcement.

'They've told me I mustn't

'discuss this with anyone, not even Alex.'

The fashion director, Lucinda, has been at

Vogue even longer than Alex and she's invited me

on what I've calculated to be her 422nd shoot.

It is with the next big thing, a teenager from the

Dominican Republic called Lenazy.

Since it began 100 years ago,

only a handful of black models have appeared on

the cover of British Vogue.

You know, you'll have a show season that everybody will be from

Holland or everybody will be from Brazil,

but in the last few seasons, there's been an

incredible mix and for us,

it's a blessing, because we're not

limiting ourselves.

So, it's brilliant to have that diversity.

How are you?

'Patrick Demarchelier has been

'photographing for Vogue since the 1970s.'

-How are you, Patrick?

-Good, good.

-Are you?

Yeah, fantastic. You look fantastic. You look younger.

That's such shit, Patrick, cos I've just got off a flight.

-So are we doing Lego, a Lego story?

-We are doing a Lego story.

-I'm going to sort out the clothes and then I'll show you.

-OK.

So, that's great.

-It's amazing how much stuff you need for one shoot.

-Fabulous.

This is quite little.

Most people would have double this.

It's just great.

They've all got to hang like soldiers,

like a beautiful army...

a beautiful army of a story.

I love those pants.

OK, well, before I do anything...

If we like the length, the height, the width.

It's amazing. You look incredible.

-I mean, I think it really brings out your beauty.

-OK, let's go for this.

I'm not even going to try the little one on because...

No. And you know what I love, Sam?

-I love this texture in here with this texture.

-OK.

-Oh, my God, I think you look incredible.

-Great.

Nice, sexy, nice. And down, something like that.

-Very easy.

-Eyes to the side. Don't move your face.

Turn this way. Turn to face me a bit more.

Too much. Now straight. Very straight.

Don't move any of that. That? Just like that?

Beautiful.

That's beautiful.

Don't move too much. Easy, easy.

'In my time, when I started,

'there were these supermodels and they

'were really huge personalities.

'Super glamorous - Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell.

'And then after that came more of a fragile,

'less healthy beauty, in a way.

'Less obviously healthy.

'So, your eye kind of changes as these girls come through

'and I think what's difficult about right now

'is that they come and they go.'

What's wonderful about, say, five years ago, ten years ago,

there was a longevity to girls and you could watch them develop

and flourish and grow, and hate modelling

and then come back to modelling, and they'd do something else

and return to it and now what you see is a much faster pace.

Watch the hand on the leg, Patrick.

Just so it's more relaxed. Just...

'It's almost as if the industry isn't

'giving them a chance to grow into their own skin.'

I think it's all... It's not, it feels...

I'm not sure of it.

Patrick, I'm just going to put her foot in the shoe more.

-I still think it was better before.

-This one?

Lenazy, I think if you can make this foot not tilt up, if possible.

She could even pull it forward a bit.

-No, not that far forward.

-No.

Or just like point it down. Bring it back up and point it down.

Bring this leg back up.

-And then point the toe down.

-No, this one.

-I think you've got to feel...

-You've got to go the other way.

You've got to lean on that hand,

like you are there and then that hand stays there.

Richard, sorry, can we just sort of, give us a moment.

We could be a while.

That's beautiful. I love that. And I love that.

To me, it's too busy and, I suppose, for me,

a picture without emotion, without some sense of

emotion of the girl is not a very successful picture

and so what I think is happening here

is that it's like all this is taking over from

Lenazy's emotional qualities.

So you're just getting jazziness and you're not getting

a sense of her character

and here, you get a sense of her.

And here.

And here.

It's too distracting. Thank God we've got two days

and everybody's really good-natured, so it's good.

So, just explain to me where you're off to now?

So, it's really exciting. I'm going to the National Portrait Gallery

to see, for the first time, the centenary exhibition

being installed.

-Hi.

-Hi.

-Come on in.

I love that.

-Oh, hello.

-Oh, hi, Alex. How are you?

-Hi.

I feel very, very excited

and...live about being part

of this year of celebrating 100 years of Vogue.

I mean, the quality is incredible.

It looks better than I was expecting.

-And I was expecting a lot.

-Oh, good, I'm really pleased.

I mean, I had very high expectations but it's exceeded them.

I mean, it's great to be in this position but,

you know, I'm having sleepless nights.

What time of night do you wake up?

About three normally.

You don't seem like someone who

-would carry much stress with you, though.

-No, I know.

It's amazing, that, isn't it?

I've never seemed like somebody who carries stress with me.

-But you do?

-Yeah.

And is that part of what makes you good at what you do,

-do you think?

-Oh, I don't know. How could I know?

You know, if somebody asked you that

question, you wouldn't know.

I don't think you have to be stressed to be good at something...

..at all. And stress is such a kind of annoying word anyway.

Now everybody is stressed, even though I use it, it's overused.

Is it anxiety then?

No, I feel a huge sense of responsibility to deliver,

that's what it is.

I just want to do what I think should be done.

March 15th. I've been in Vogue for seven months now

and what I've learned is this -

it's not really about the fashion for Alex.

It's about the competitive nature of journalism.

She pushed back the issue with Kate Moss on

the cover at the last

minute and replaced it with Rihanna because

American Vogue had the singer on their cover the same month.

This seemed like a big thing at the time.

But now Alex says it was just a storm in a teacup.

Even so, it shows in this world, the magazine cover is everything.

OK, this is what I've been working on for

the centenary cover based on, like, a graphic idea.

-So we have these mocked up.

-Beautiful.

Yeah, that's my favourite one,

I think. I think that's really special.

And if we do this, if we do the white in like a matte...

This one's interesting. It's maybe not as good as that?

No, I think the white's the problem.

I mean, that's quite nice because it is, well,

it's very direct, isn't it?

That 100, you can see it's 100.

The only thing I'm not sure about this is

whether it's just a bit too understated.

I mean, it's very beautiful but are we...

Do we need to do something a bit more kind of...

Maybe celebrating a century of style isn't enough?

No, exactly. Maybe it should be sort of style,

fashion, fame and something or other.

You know, we should slightly oomph the words up a bit.

Quite a big decision, isn't it, the front cover of such an anniversary?

-Was it always your idea to have it as a graphic?

-Yeah.

How did one come to that decision?

Well, I just feel that it's very hard to pick a person who can

encapsulate 100 years of Vogue.

And we've done very well with sort of... Celebration issues

actually have historically not had a single figure on them,

so, in a way,

I'm continuing with a trend that we've already...

..that's a familiar one.

So is the decision that we'll continue working

on these two designs and I'll get the paper stock?

'I can't stop thinking about this announcement Alex is going to make.

'The first thought that came into my head

'was that she'll be throwing a surprise party

'for all her staff to say thanks for all their hard work.

'But I suppose it could be any number of things.

'Maybe she's going to tell everyone she's leaving.'

I think I'm going to

prefer what you've originally done but it might be good to...

'I wonder if anyone else in

'the office knows about this surprise announcement.

'For a moment today, I was

'going to ask one of the women on the features desk,

'but bottled it at the last minute.

'Instead, we talked at length about Cher's

'denim collection from the 1980s.'

That's Cher on a bed of feathers. Fake fraying that isn't

-quite on the knees.

-Is that a good look?

No, but it's a good throwback look, which is

a different thing.

I mean, this, if you squint, it could be Vetements,

which is a hot new brand.

-Could be what?

-Vetements.

Everyone's loving it right now.

Oh, right.

It's a good one.

They do really stiff denim and they do really great kind of oversized,

quite surreal streetwear.

-Right.

-Yeah.

-It's good. It's very expensive.

-Mmm.

-Yeah.

-Their jeans are about £750.

-Oh.

I know. But they're very...

You see them and you know that they are Vetements

because they've got this sort of funny, asymmetric finish.

'Julia has been here for five years and was recently promoted.

'She's part of Sarah's team and she writes articles for both

'the magazine and the website.'

What was the most expensive thing you ever bought?

My Prada red shearling coat.

It was the price of a second-hand Mini.

I wear it a lot. It's really warm.

-It's got big pockets.

-Do you love it?

I do quite love it. It's very red, though.

'I guess people like Julia and Sarah represent the future of Vogue.

'When Alex and Lucinda are gone,

'these two might well be in charge.'

'I wonder what Vogue would be like then.

'Would the magazine even exist in a few years' time?'

It's so beautiful. Very well done. And the light is great.

Mario Testino is doing a special shoot

for the centenary issue, which is a celebration

of each decade of the magazine's history.

This is 1910.

Another big shoot is a collection of

portraits of people Alex thinks are important

figures in British culture.

But as each new celebrity gets booked,

my heart sinks a little bit more.

Eddie Redmayne was a no.

Keira Knightley was a no.

Charlotte Rampling, posing with a chimp, was a no.

The photographer does not want me on set.

So you said you'd had a couple of hiccups?

Yes, unfortunately we were going to be shooting on Friday

and the model did not, er, turn up, which was a shame.

-So which was the model?

-I'm not sure if I should really say.

Why can't you say? SHE LAUGHS

I'm not sure that that would be appropriate to say, probably.

Um, who was being shot on Friday?

Who were the choices?

We were hoping to shoot Naomi Campbell on Friday,

-but, unfortunately, she did not make it.

-Oh.

And, um...

did she, did she give a good...good...good reason why?

Erm... I've yet to hear that reason, but I'm sure there will be one.

Oh, so it was just like... Well, she wasn't ill or anything,

-she just didn't turn up?

-I don't know. I don't know the...

I don't know the answer to that yet.

I'm sure we'll find out, but we're moving on to, you know,

other pictures.

Later, Rosie told me the reason why Naomi didn't make it

was because she got held up.

But she said the shoot was rescheduled

and the pictures were fabulous.

March 15.

Hooray(!)

We've finally been given access to a big celebrity shoot

and it's one everyone in the office is very excited about.

Patsy and Edina from the sitcom Ab Fab are doing a photoshoot

with Georgia May Jagger, daughter of Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall.

They're being shot by David Bailey,

but he's laid down some strict guidelines -

I mustn't shoot him and I mustn't shoot the shoot,

which actually makes things kind of impossible.

We're not allowed...

We're not being allowed to film any of the actual photos...

..so there's not much we can get from this.

No, I know.

What about the Mulberry all in white cream?

-Yeah, let's do that.

-Yeah?

-That would look nice.

Yeah, that's lovely.

That's a strong look.

Today, we are doing Vogue's 100-year anniversary photoshoot

for Absolutely Fabulous and it's a very exciting moment for me.

I'm sort of the model for Edina and Patsy, and they're styling me.

-They're styling you, are they?

-Yes.

-Oh, I see.

Right, so everything that you've been wearing,

they've chosen for you?

Yeah, they're styling me.

Oh, I don't know. We'll see.

-If I'm white, anything would go with that.

-Yep.

-Good.

'Did you watch it when you were growing up with your mum?

'Yeah, I used to watch it with my mum and my sister.'

We had it on VHS and sort of watched it over and over again.

I've seen every episode.

What was your mum's view about it?

I mean, my mum's always loved it. I mean, she loves both of them.

I mean, and I think...always Patsy's style,

the sort of chignon, always sort of reminded me of my mum, you know,

my mum's always smoked and stuff, so that kind of element of it.

But it is funny, because, you know,

fashion is ridiculous sometimes and that's the best part about it,

is it's, you know, making fun of something that is really funny.

And, also, both Patsy and your mum

share a romantic connection with the Stones.

-I can't talk about that.

-Oh, right. Sorry.

-No.

Erm... Erm...

Can I see in the mirror?

-I think she looks cool.

-Right, there you are.

I think I look cool.

-You look amazing.

-I think I look amazing.

-Have you got your shot?

-Yes, great. Thank you.

I think I look amazing.

'Do you know, it's everybody's idea of what fashion people are like,

'and they're larger than life and hilariously funny and,

'you know, falling out of cabs and doing all that malarkey,'

and, of course, we're, you know, very well-behaved in comparison,

but they, you know, they make it fun.

You must have fallen out of some cabs in your time.

Oh, I've fallen out of some cabs, yeah.

I've definitely fallen out of some cabs!

Is their portrayal of fashion, is it ludicrous

or is it rooted in reality?

It's probably a bit of both. I mean, I think those days of...

I think there were those days in the '80s, for sure,

and mad, you know, up all night and partying,

and we did have those days,

and I think it's very different now.

Everybody is incredibly professional now.

I think there's a lot of money at stake.

I think people's careers are taken very seriously, but for sure,

you know, like all good comedy, it's rooted in the truth.

-It's 100 years of Vogue this year.

-Yeah.

I mean, what a fantastic legacy.

-It's fantastic.

-It's fantastic.

-I mean, I remember when it started.

-Do you?

-Do I?

-No.

-No, I don't. I don't remember when it started,

but it just seems always to have been there, doesn't it?

-Vogue.

-Always just sort of been in our...in our zeitgeist.

Yeah. Always here, always in Vogue.

You two would remember the heyday of Vogue, I suppose,

the '60s and the '70s, is that right?

Well, yah, yah. I was pretty much, you know,

on every cover in those days.

I think...I think it was Vogue.

I'm probably too young to actually remember it,

-but I remember the idea of it.

-Yah.

-Hmm.

-Mainly.

-Yah.

Cos, you know, the great thing about Vogue,

especially American Vogue, is even if it's summer, it's always winter.

British Vogue, not American Vogue.

British Vogue isn't the same, it's always... It doesn't work.

-Spring when it's autumn.

-It doesn't work. Ho-ho, ho-ho!

And will Vogue be here in 100 years' time?

-Yah.

-Yes.

-And we'll be here to see it.

-But it's going to be online.

Online Vogue, yes. It'll be Vogue online.

Do you know what that means?

No, I don't.

At the Ab Fab shoot, for a while,

I couldn't decide what was real and what was fake.

I think what makes Patsy and Edina so likeable...

-BOTH:

-Happy birthday to Vogue!

-Yay!

-..is they both seem so out of kilter with the times.

-Why did she go, "Yay"?

-Hello?

LAUGHTER

'When you think about Vogue in, say, ten years' time, do you think

'there's a chance it might just be online or something like that?

'I don't know. I doubt it. I very much doubt it.'

You know, I know one has to change and I'm very, you know...

..you know, I can Google-ise with the rest of them

and I do realise ten years ago,

my assistant was having to print out e-mails.

What a bloody waste of paper that was, you know?

It's just embarrassing.

-This is lovely. This is a good place to start.

-Yeah.

When I was really young and when I was a secretary for

Beatrix Miller, one day she asked me if I would go and do

a little, tiny interview, like a tiny thing -

I think it was maybe my first thing for Vogue -

to interview Marcel Marceau, you know, the mime artist?

His character was called Bip and when I was leaving,

he drew me this cartoon.

And I found it in the scrapbook the other day and I framed it.

What does the card say?

It says, "To Lucinda, with love always, from Bip.

"Marcel Marceau, 1980."

God.

That's my mother.

She loved clothes.

I mean, when I was growing up, we'd go to Harrods and she'd have

a tape measure in her pocket and we used to try on

all the kids' clothes and then she used to sort of sketch them

and measure them, and then we'd go home and we'd buy the fabric

and we'd sort of make copies of them.

And... You know, she used to make me...

I remember every outfit I had.

I had, like, a snakeskin pinafore and I had a red patent leather

with a huge zip.

She put a huge zip in with a black turtleneck

and black patent shoes with a big buckle and, erm...

Yeah, I had a red patent one,

I had a black snakeskin one, I had another snakeskin one. Erm...

She used to make me amazing clothes.

And we made lots of things together, actually,

-and, and when, when...

-SHE CLEARS HER THROAT

I remember when she was...

Just before she died, I remember I was making a sort of mosaic table

in France and I made it out of all the plates that the boys

had, sort of, broken over the years, and I was grouting it,

and I suppose that really came from her.

She was so... You know, there was always a cornflake packet

cut up and made into a theatre,

there was always dolls' clothes made.

I mean, I played with dolls until a very inappropriate age.

Poppy's still doing that, actually,

you know, cutting their hair and making clothes for them.

So I guess, you know, that's a really...

You know, it's what we're still doing, really.

CHATTER

As I stood there, wondering if it would be all right

to have a glass of champagne and a canape,

I sensed I was in the middle of a very privileged world.

Everyone here was part of that exclusive club, the fashion crowd.

Elitism lies at the very heart of this world.

It's what makes fashion tick.

That's not to say people here haven't earned the privilege.

Many of them have.

But I wonder if they know when it's their time to go...

..when they've outstayed their welcome.

I'm very emotional about it, because it's not just the time

I've been editing Vogue, but it's kind of...

I feel like my childhood was on the walls and being here tonight

and seeing all the people that came from many years of Vogue life

coming into that room was, um...

..really something quite...quite extraordinary.

Alex and I always talk about, "How do you leave well?"

-And I don't think there's such a thing. Sadly, I don't.

-Really?

No, I think it's really hard.

I think if you're on top of your game,

you don't want to leave and there's no reason to, for leaving.

And then, you know, if you're slightly, sort of,

going down, you don't want to leave.

I mean, I hope...

I think there are other things in life that you think...

I don't know how you'd think, "That was my last shoot."

That's the bugger about fashion, is you just see more stuff that

you can do stuff with, so you're like, you know,

permanently excited, you know, to do the next shoot.

I think I will have to be told to leave, I'm sure.

-Have you worked out your exit strategy?

-No! I wish I had.

I'd love it if somebody could work out my exit strategy for me.

Well, they will, actually. That's a really stupid thing to say!

They will and I'll have to take it. That's fine. That's fine.

April.

The 250-page centenary issue of the magazine is complete.

What about we move the illustration?

The last thing before it's sent to the printers

is to finalise its running order.

Beckham before Ab Fab?

Yeah, I think, cos then it's another long, then Ab Fab.

Then the lifestyle. Quite like that.

Yeah.

-Yeah, that looks fine, actually. That's nice.

-Mmm. Doesn't it?

Cos you feel like it's really solid all the way through.

Let's do that.

OK.

How are you feeling, looking at your centenary edition

up there on the wall?

Yeah, it's amazing. I'm thrilled with it, actually.

I think it looks really great.

Erm...

It's amazing.

Everything in it is good.

And...I'm very proud of it. I think it's fantastic.

It's such a great...

This one edition is like a fantastic body of work.

It seems sad that it should be, sort of, a piece of ephemera, in a way.

It's not a piece of ephemera. Everyone's going to keep it.

It's a historical document.

There's nothing ephemeral about it.

It's a collector's item.

It'll be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds at some point.

I'm thrilled.

All I meant by that was fashion is ephemeral, isn't it? That's all.

No. But this is not about that.

This is about a continuum and that's the whole point of it -

that you have got this arc... Well, not even an arc, actually.

It's just soaring off into the future.

It's a bit like a sort of time capsule, isn't it?

That people can come back to in 200 years' time.

Hope so. Do you think they will?

They might not know what a magazine is, I suppose, in 200 years' time.

April 30th.

It's the day of Alex's surprise announcement.

I've been told to arrive at a secret location in central London

at six in the evening.

Thanks.

-Hello!

-Hi, Richard.

-How are you?

-Nice to see you again.

Hello. Hi. Good to see you.

Do you want to come through this way? There's been a slight change.

-Come through?

-Just through here, yes.

It's all very intriguing, this.

-Sorry?

-It is, isn't it?

'I had been speculating quite a lot about what Alex was going to say.

'But as I was escorted down this long corridor,

'I have to admit I had no real clue.

'The corridor led right to the heart of the National Portrait Gallery.

'But there was still no sign of Alex.'

-NEWS REPORTER:

-'It was announced today that the Duchess of Cambridge

'will feature on the front cover of British Vogue

'to mark the magazine's centenary.

'In her first sitting for a magazine,

'the Duchess is seen looking relaxed and wearing casual clothes.

'Alexandra Shulman, the editor in chief of British Vogue,

'said, "To be able to publish a photographic shoot

' "with the Duchess of Cambridge

' "has been one of my greatest ambitions for the magazine."

'The collaboration for the June edition had resulted in

' "a true celebration of our centenary..." '

Trust.

It's a critical ingredient in any successful documentary.

As a director, my job is to make the people I film feel they can

speak openly and honestly in an unfettered way.

But for some reason,

Alex felt she couldn't tell me about the royal photoshoot.

It wasn't just a case of withholding information.

She actively lied.

More than that, she developed an elaborate ruse.

This was filmed one month after the shoot with the Duchess of Cambridge.

-Yeah?

-Was it always your idea to have it as a graphic?

-Yeah.

-How did one come to that decision?

Well, I just feel that it's very hard to, erm...

..to pick a person who can encapsulate 100 years of Vogue.

Celebration issues actually have historically not had

a single figure on them, so, erm...

..in a way, I'm continuing with a trend that we've already...

..that's a familiar one.

My managing editor, Fran, knew about it...

..and Rosie, because she had to organise

all the logistics on the shoot,

and Lucinda, who was styling the shoot.

So, for a long time, only...only them.

Well, I filmed you and Jamie talking about a cover with a graphic.

Yeah, yeah, the cover that we produced.

I've watched the rushes back of that particular scene.

I have to say, you're quite convincing.

-Good. Good liar, right?

-Yeah.

Did you feel a bit awkward about that at the time?

No... I didn't.

'The centenary issue of the magazine has hit the shelves

'and it's selling like hot cakes.

'It's made me aware that Alex is still at the top of her game.

'Far from announcing her retirement,

'she's pulled off a major journalistic coup.

'I asked Alex if it would be all right to film her doing

'something that wasn't related to her work, something personal.

'She came back to me and said she'd like to take me to Hyde Park.'

When I was a very small child, every afternoon, we'd come to the park.

This tree here is the tree that we'd play around.

I remember being so small that...

..you could kind of get inside the hollows of the tree.

So this is the hole, is it? HE CHUCKLES

No, it's down here. This.

It's that you were small enough that you could stand in, like,

here, and it would feel like you were in a cave.

I mean, I know I wanted to get married and have kids

and I do clearly remember, at some point in my life, not wanting a life

like my mother, not wanting to be working, rushing out the door in

the morning, trying to get the food organised for the evening, rushing

home at night, cooking dinner, and I did exactly the same thing as her.

I mean, you know, exactly the same as her,

and I actually remember walking round this park with her,

walking round the lake and just kind of giving her a really hard time,

you know, "I don't know why you make your life so hard.

"Why do you try and do so much?" you know?

"I'm not going to be like you."

But now, you know, if you ask me about careers

and having a job and everything or...

not a career, but having something that you're engaged in,

something that means something to you,

that's sort of, that you're doing...

You know, I increasingly realise how important that is.

I was sitting on a plane yesterday and I was looking at a woman,

a young woman, sort of in the...

across the aisle, and she was very, very pretty and, erm...

..and she was with a sort of, a guy, I don't know what he was.

He was hugely tall.

I mean, he could have been, like, a baseball player

or something or other, you know, American footballer

or something or other.

And I was kind of, in my mind, you know, I was making

a story up about her and I was thinking,

well, she doesn't work.

She's his girlfriend or his wife, but she's travelling around with him

and she's very, very pretty, but...

she's not going to be able to keep those looks,

you know, her looks will go,

and I hope she's doing something else

and not just being his companion,

because, you know, that must be so brutal for people

who rely upon how they look to define themselves.

You know, when you age, you just...

that just goes, and then what have you got left?

And I was just thinking, "Well, you know, I'm very lucky.

"I've never defined myself by how I look."

Erm...

So, there hasn't been that much to go,

and, erm...I've done something else.

So I guess I did feel a sort of achievement at that strange moment

on the flight from Geneva.

I just want to see how small she is,

cos they're always much smaller than I think.

-(She's coming now.)

-Charlotte.

I know, I was...

I don't think I went to bed until 3am.

Hi, how are you? So nice to see you.

-Can I get a quick picture for Instagram?

-Yeah.

May 21st.

We need the flash.

When I first started filming with Alex nine months ago,

I asked her what she thought of the reality TV star Kim Kardashian.

She said she didn't think she was particularly interesting.

But Alex also told me she changes her mind quite a bit.

Kim has been invited to speak at the Vogue Festival,

which has been organised by Alex.

It's part of the final weekend of celebrations.

I'm changing this one around here, actually.

-In a situation like this...

-Yeah?

-..is there, like, a top table?

-Well, sometimes there is. I'm trying to avoid that...

-Right.

..because then you have a problem with people feeling, if they're not

on the top table, why aren't they on the top table?

And there's that thing of "that much closer to God"

that I'm trying to avoid as well.

It was one of those things that they said in Sardinia

when the Aga Khan's yacht was...

And then there was this pecking order as to

who was more next to the Aga Khan's yacht and, you know,

the less important you were, the further down the harbour you went.

That much closer to God you've got to get.

So I'm trying to avoid the "that much closer to God" situation

by distributing people who are, sort of,

well-known throughout the tables,

but also distributing the tables themselves

so that you don't have a kind of cluster.

I noticed you've put, on one of the tables,

Samantha Cameron with Kim Kardashian.

That'll be an interesting combo.

Interesting is also good!

-What was your thinking behind that?

-That it would be interesting.

Also, more to the point there,

actually, that Samantha would be with Jonathan,

and Jonathan is the head of Conde Nast,

so she would be with the person that's, you know,

the head of the whole thing,

which would be appropriate for the wife of the Prime Minister.

We've got Marie Helvin...

I thought we sat her.

Not yet, I think I moved her,

because I thought maybe she should be...

'Welcome to British Vogue's centenary dinner.

'I'm Nicholas Coleridge, president of Conde Nast International,

'and we are thrilled that you are here at our 100th birthday party.

'Very few magazines make it to 100 years and even fewer

'as stronger today than at any earlier time in their history,

'but that is the case with Vogue.'

Obviously and undeniably, how incredibly lucky we have been

in the editor of Vogue over the past quarter-century, Alexandra Shulman.

APPLAUSE

She has edited the magazine for exactly one quarter

of the magazine's life and it is no coincidence that

the past 25 years have been the most successful in Vogue's history -

creatively, financially, in circulation and in reputation.

It is my pleasure to introduce

the editor in chief of British Vogue, Alex Shulman.

APPLAUSE