Alexandra Schulman Q&A

Today I was honoured enough to have been able to attend a guest lecture held at my university, with Alexandra Shulman current editor of British Vogue. Thinking about it wasn’t a lecture more of an informal Q&A session where she covered a number of topics both within the area of Journalism and fashion.

It was such a surreal experience; the general atmosphere is hard to put into words but there was a buzz about the room that suddenly quit as soon as she entered. There were people everywhere running round with cameras and microphones, music playing softly in the background (I assume to try and keep us calm), slowly the room began to fill.

So before I go any further, like talk about her appearance, which for some reason took me back by surprise, I don’t really know what I was expecting but in walk a woman who looked classy, elegant and casual all at the same time. I think I was expecting something along the lines of Miranda Priestly from the devil wears Prada, I couldn’t have been more wrong, it was a very practical look that at the same time was still very put together. She later went on to explain the outfit was made out of a number of different outfit combinations, she had just come from a meeting in the morning and get an event to attend in the evening. (I wish I had the brains to do this when I go on an overnight stay I always seem to pack everything including the kitchen sink)

So let’s get more into the actual lecture and especially some of the points that were said during the Q&A session.

The majority of the questions at the begging were asked with regards to her standing down as editor of British Vogue on June the 24th, I almost feel though that she has been asked so much about this recently that she no longer has to consider her answers and they just glide from her mouth, but anyway here is just a selection of the questions asked along with the answers she gave; please consider that these answers won’t be her exact response’s.

“Why and how did you come to the decision that it was time for you to leave Vogue?”

What I lover about her response to this question was how she seemed almost relieved that she was finally standing down “after 25 years of sitting in the same office it feels incredible that I have decided to leave, and I am pleased with my decision, most of you sat in this room weren’t even born when I first came into position” she made the decision in November last year while at SS fashion week in Paris, and with last year being the 100th centenary for the publication “ I thought I couldn’t really beat that, I have gone as far as I can with the magazine” but what a high for her to be leaving on with the documentary, exhibition at the national portrait gallery; which I was lucky enough to experience for myself, and I can tell you now it was amazing one of my favourite exhibitions to date.

She also mentioned that she always had this “very relentless feeling, a feeling of never achieving anything because it is ongoing” and when she was asked about what she would miss about being part of the magazine she jokingly said, even though I don’t know whether or not it was really a joke that “she won’t miss the negotiations with people on what she wants to see and then not winning them”

Questions were also asked about digital coverage of the magazine or the vast range of media platforms that they cover “It used to be fairly straight forwards we had 12 covers a year with everything you need to know contained within the pages, but introduction of digital now means that we have to produce content 24/7 to support the growing interest in fashion”.

But one of the questions that I was hoping would be asked was how that managed to get the Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton for the cover of the 100th edition of the magazine.

“Can you please explain how it was working with the Duchess of Cambridge and how did you manage to get her on the front cover”

Alexandra explained that she had previously written a number of letters to the Duchess asking her to feature in the magazine but for “understandable reasons said no, she didn’t want to have the persona that other publications could then go on an interview her, but with is being the 100th issues I thought I’ll try again, I thought of was in how I could word the letter in a way that would persuade her to consider, but then I remembered that she is a patron of the national portrait gallery and I thought how incredible would it be to get her on the cover alongside the exhibition, however I didn’t hear back until of was heading into a press release one day for the gallery when just before I was about to go on stage I heard the news” This just proves how things within the magazine industry can be very last minute and you need to be constantly prepared.

They decided that the shoot would be quite informal, not conventional glamour which would have been so easy, and on the build-up it was kept very hush hush, they didn’t even tell the photographer Mario Testino who he was photographing until just a few days before hand.

As the questions continued, topics where discussed along the lines of how do you word with so many different personalities, and what she is planning on doing next, which at the moment she seems very unsure about which is considerable since she hasn’t really had a break in 25 years, but a number of potential opportunities have been spoken about such as further journalism, writing for several newspapers and even TV.

But then the mic was given to the floor and a number of third year students started to ask questions related to their dissertation with several first and second years also giving an input. One question that really took her back was when a gentleman in the audience asked about ‘pet fashion, and her opinion on it’, now I don’t really know the relevance this, but each to their own I guess, but I think Alexandra and the rest of the audience found it quite humorous since we had just finished talking about ethical fashion.

I think I’ll leave this blog here because I’m 1’100 words in and I know if this was me I would start losing interest round about now, but I honestly can’t describe what an experience it has been, there was so much advice that I know will definitely help me in the future. She in truly inspiration and I think I speak for a lot of people when I say she will be missed as editor for Vogue but we still have a few more months of her work to come yet, and Edward Enninful have some big boots to fill.