New BBC documentary exposes the weird world of British Vogue and ruthless editor Alexandra Shulman’s rivalry with Anna Wintour
The tell-all programme looks at ruthless editor Alexandra Shulman and her decision to axe Kate Moss cover
ITS focus may be on beauty but British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman says there is an ugly side to the magazine.
And now we get to see how she has managed to survive in the cut-throat world as a BBC documentary goes behind the scenes of the nation’s biggest style bible.
For the first time in 100 years, cameras were allowed inside the Vogue offices in central London to film Absolutely Fashion: Inside British Vogue, a two-parter which starts tonight on BBC2.
And much like the hit movie The Devil Wears Prada (but without the comedy or romance), it delves into the lives of the people behind the pages — including stars Kate Moss, Victoria Beckham, Hugh Jackman, Edie Campbell and Paul McCartney’s photographer daughter Mary.
But while they all look glamorous in the photos, the documentary reveals a shallow world of insecurity, ruthlessness and fear that is obsessed with money.
On one photoshoot, Wolverine star Jackman looks silly as he is asked to pretend to drink whisky in a dry bathtub while wearing a tuxedo as staff coo: “Come and see how handsome you are, Hugh,” as they upload the pictures to their laptops.
Alexandra herself, who has been at the helm of Vogue for 25 years, comes across as a humourless, autocratic prude who is obsessed with the magazine’s sales figures.
But then the 58-year-old, who has increased sales to more than 200,000, is not in this business to make friends.
She says: “You can’t have it both ways — you can’t expect people to be your friends exactly and you can’t expect people necessarily to like you.
“That can’t be your main consideration and that can then mean that you’re a bit isolated because you’re not quite joining in.”
It is this cold, unfriendly approach to the workplace that makes writers at Vogue so scared of their boss.
Two executive assistants, who work outside Alexandra’s huge office, refer to themselves as “The Gatekeepers”. Other staff use them to gauge the mood of their editor, asking what the “weather” is like today — presumably stormy means keep your head down.
Editor-in-chief Fiona Golfar likens handing in an article to submitting homework.
She says: “It is like school, it is ridiculous. You do your work, you hand it in and then you wait for your marks.
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“In Alexandra’s case it comes in all different forms. A tick is good, a ‘nice’ is great, a ‘fantastic’ is you save it and show a friend. It depends. ‘Terrific’ is something worth holding on to.”
Asked if the boss lets you know when she does not like something, the response is a wary: “Yes . . . yes . . . yes . . . yes.”
Alexandra’s ruthlessness is laid bare when the cameras capture her scrapping a Kate Moss cover shoot just 30 minutes before the magazine is due to go to press — all to get one over on arch nemesis Anna Wintour, editor of American Vogue.
The pair have fallen out over who is putting Rihanna on their cover first and, in a bid to trump her rival, Alexandra changes her entire magazine in just 24 hours.
While pandemonium erupts among the staff, panicked creative director Jaime Perlman tells the documentary team the crisis is unprecedented.
Jaime says: “I’m really shocked because I’ve never seen a disaster this huge, we were literally printing the Kate Moss cover.
“It was scheduled to print within a half hour when we had to stop the press and I had to deal with the production department.
“My department had to redesign the content page, the editor’s letter, anything with any remnants of the Kate Moss story had to be swapped within 24 hours.”
Despite the pressure her decision puts on her staff, Alexandra refuses to back down, rebuking the documentary’s filmmaker Richard Macer for bringing it up.
She tells him: “All I know is that we agreed we would have Rihanna.
“I don’t think it would have been helpful to have had two covers on the same news-stand at the same time of the same person within the same market.
“You said we weren’t going to talk about this any more.”
She’s also seen holding up catwalk shows by being late and dismisses a Gucci frock as “an old ladies’ knickers kind of thing”. Footage shows the documentary crew at the ill-fated Kate Moss shoot, with Alexandra warning them that Kate — who is dressing up in the Rolling Stones’ old stage clothes — won’t give them the time of day.
She says: “Don’t bug her too much. Kate does pretty much what she wants, you’ll have to see what you get.
“You may get Kate being chatty, warm, funny and embracing, or you won’t get her at all because she won’t probably have you around.”
Alexandra isn’t wrong. After showing the cameras how Mick Jagger’s white leather jumpsuit was held together with bulldog clips along her back because it’s too big, Kate boasts that she’s been on the cover of British Vogue 36 times, “more than anyone else apparently”.
Then she runs away from the camera, saying: “I hate being interviewed. I’m like ‘Aaaarrgghh!’ I don’t like talking about myself.”
Alexandra likes having Kate on the cover — mainly because she sells tons of copies.
She says: “Some of the covers she’s done she’s been almost a symbol rather than a person. That is what I’ve used her for a lot, as a symbol of fashion, Britishness, Vogue . . . It’s not all always about her as a person, there are not that many people that have that symbolic power.”
Fashion director Lucinda Chambers, who has been at Vogue for 36 years, reminisces about how she once lived in a squat with acclaimed photographer Mario Testino, and reveals how, before Alexandra’s reign, Vogue was all cigarettes, parties and hangovers.
She says: “It’s less indulgent [now]. When I joined Vogue you’d go in and there’d be clouds of Gitanes smoke and people with their feet on the desk.
“It was a more heightened place — people weren’t beavering away, getting on with it, behaving well. People behaved badly. There’d be lots of hangovers and parties.”
Asked about the present atmosphere, she says: “There is no room for people to have hissy fits. Alex runs a really tight ship.”
Absolutely Fashion: Inside British Vogue is on BBC2 on Thursday at 9pm.
