Vogue UK has been celebrating their 100th anniversary with a multitude of notable festivities, including a celebrated Kate Middleton cover and a dedicated museum exhibit at The National Portrait Gallery. But what centennial is complete without the names who have contributed to the magazine’s 100-year history? From models who have starred on the cover, to designers who have created the clothes that have graced its pages, the photographers who have been behind the lens of its most famous shoots and the editors who have shaped Vogue. Step inside with us, to catch up with all the action from this year´s two-day extravaganza.
We would need 1000 pages to describe everything we learned and saw, so we will try to keep it simple as much as possible. But one thing is certain, was a hell of a weekend and we are back with a lot of ideas from attending such an inspiring festival.
Vogue Festival is always intense, and this weekend wasn’t different. We can hardly believe what we have done in just one day. The programme was amazing, there were a lot of things happening at the same time, so we had to choose wisely 😉
The most interesting parts were definitely the talks and the masterclasses. On the talks we had the opportunity to hear the big names in fashion, such as Grace Coddington, Lucinda Chambers, Isabel Marant, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, just to name a few, talking about their experiences, tastes, opinions about a particular subject, and most of the time was impossible not to laugh with them about their hilarious visions or comments of simple things in life.
Photo: Lauren Santo Domingo and Derek Blasberg, Alexa Chung, Caroline de Maigret and Isabel Marant
When asked about her favorite thing about the fashion industry, Alexa Chung responded: ‘They put your name in front of you at dinner so you remember who you are.’ 🙂
The talk with Alexa Chung, Derek Blasberg and Lauren Santo Domingo, was hilarious. It was like you were in an English pub chatting and having fun with friends. They are incredibly fun and cool, but they are also very professional. One thing that the three of them told us, was that we have to work hard and always give our best at work to become relevant in such a competitive world. Yes, we all know that, but did you really think that Lauren, Derek or Alexa had to work so hard to become the successful people that they are now?!? In magazines everything seems so easy to achieve.
The talks were definitely a must, because not only you have the opportunity to meet so many famous faces, but also to ask them the questions that you always wished for. 😉
In addition to the all-star talks, this year’s masterclasses offered the opportunity for face time with leaders in their respective fields of the fashion and beauty industries. And we were there to attend the Masterclass “Breaking into fashion journalism”, and met five Vogue Editors. Nine of us sat down with one of the editors in the same round table, and every twenty minutes Editors changed places between them. Was really interesting. Here we got the opportunity to know everything about getting the story, from quick-turnaround fashion show reports to long-form features for Vogue, newspaper writing, breaking online stories, and snappy style points, learn how to find our voice, how to write original, engaging copy – and what makes an interesting pitch.
Photos from Masterclass: Vogue Crew: Nicole Mowbray, Violet Henderson, Joana Branco from our team, and Sarah Harris; a guest and Lauren Milligan.
The editors were: the Vogue’s Fashion Features Director Sarah Harris, that was wearing a killing louis vuitton leather jacket; Contributing Editor Christa D’Souza, Acting Features Editor Nicole Mowbray; Commissioning Editor Violet Henderson and Vogue.co.uk News Editor Lauren Milligan, that even with a baby belly with her Mac on the top, was there to share with us her experience.
But Vogue Festival didn’t end there, we could also immerse in all things fashion in the Vogue World Tent, in which guests had access all day, in our case between talks and masterclasses.
The vogue tent was a delight for every Fashion addict like ourselves 😉 We could feature styling sessions from Vogue’s own fashion and beauty editors, like Lucinda Chambers; makeovers, manicures from Bobbi Brown, Tom Ford, Jo Malone, CND Vinylux. We could also go to Kérastase salon and do the braid that we always dream of, by Kérastase professional team.
We have to say, as we experienced this one, that the professionals from Kérastase work all day long doing non-stop braids. And all of them look so perfect that was hard do believe they were made in fifteen minutes. What a team! An exclusive fashion drawing class with David Downton and Erin O’Connor; the Vogue Cover Shoot with Harrods; the book signings, that was crazy crowded when the one and only Grace Coddington appeared to sign her big orange book, that was for sell at the Vogue Shop, here we bought some “souvenirs”, after all this was an event to remember, like a Levi´s Jacket special edition for Vogue UK 100th Birthday, this jacket is insane! T-shirt customizing, Tote Bag signing by the great Desingers Dolce and Gabbana.
Because we didn’t have a lot of free time, we decided to lunch at the Vogue Café, where we could charge our Phones, Computers, cameras… which happens to became very helpful, and we chose to lunch a super tasty, light and energetic couscous.
As you can imagine, after a long day of such an intense fashion day, we were exhausted. But it was worth every minute, after all we were breathing fashion all day. What more could we have asked? 😉
