4 December 1995
fashion is an illusion, and in admitting that fact while celebrating it, French
Vogue still beats everyone at the game
For 25 years, the December issue of French Vogue has been “guest edited” by a distinguished succession of personalities, from Jeanne Moreau, Federico Fellini and Marlene Dietrich in the 1970s, to Zeffirelli, Hockney and Miró in the 1980s, while the 1990s have so far included the Dalai Lama (I’m not joking), Nelson Mandela and Martin Scorsese. This month, however, the home team are having a retrospective of the past 75 years. The anniversary issue is a kaleidoscope of high style that must give any glossy magazine editor or publisher pause for thought.
It includes such dotty features as an article on handbags by someone called São Schlumberger (“Les sacs de São”); a six-page gallery of portrait sketches by Pierre Le Tan turned into a game of naming 103 creators of fashion; a photographic tribute to the pooch as fashion accessory (“Dogues En Vogue“); and an especially daft image ostensibly captured in a
Labour ward, showing a model sporting gold sandals as she gives birth.