Franca Sozzani

[sethii]

Franca is writing a series of 21 entries about the processes involved in making the magazine! Italian language versions of the articles are available at vogue.it website.

Yesterday, while talking about the carrying-out of a photo shoot, I deliberately chose not to deal with the topic of set and set designer. That requires a separate entry.

Being it a studio, a house or any other indoor or outdoor location; being the scenario the photo shoot is set in a dream-like place or the reconstruction of a space world, nothing can be done without the skills and the work of a set designer.

A set designer is the author, or the accomplisher - according to the creative relationship between them and the photographer - of the set in which photos are taken. Usually, the photographer himself, once he knows the idea of the photo shoot, will talk to the set designer and describe how he wants a decoration or a reconstruction to look like, as close as possible to his idea, his dream.

A set designer, like an interior designer, draws a proper plan and then builds it with the help of joiners, electricians, decorators and painters, as if he were reconstructing a 60s Liberty house, a castle, a space-ship, an Italian garden or an unreal place, only imagined. It's a work based upon creativity, on the ability of creating unreal places that you can only find in the fantasy of photographers.

And then there's quickness. Because to move from ideas to actual creation sometimes they only have a few weeks, some others just a few days or even hours.

Some photographers, like Tim Walker or Miles Aldridge, design their set and then have it built by a set designer. Some others, like Bruce Weber, prefer real places, and ask others to look for furniture and objects to adapt to the place he has chosen. He himself will afterwards change and position everything, down to the smallest detail. He's both photographer and his own set designer. Steven Meisel, instead, has proper places reconstructed, with the precision that is typical of his photos.

Everyone has their own requests, and the set designer needs to quickly catch them and turn them into reality. A set designer for a magazine photo shoot has to build both big spaces and small corners. Photography misleads and even a small corner can look endless according to the framing.

Being set designer of fashion shows is different. Everything can be seen, from each angle. There's no misleading here. In this case, if possible, times are even shorter, because locations often become available only the night before the show, or maximum, for more complicated sets, a couple of days before, with a rise in price for the location rental.

The most incredible sets, for the work they imply, their fantasy, grandeur and difficulty, are without a doubt those that Karl Lagerfeld designs for Chanel. He works with different set designers, according to his needs. He has made practically everything: from proper icebergs reconstructed with tons of ice transported from Nordic countries - among which models walked wearing boots in fake fur and long dresses they had to drag in the water - to a 20-meter-high gold lion, holding a three-meter-tall ball in one paw, from which models came out, to a thirty-meter-high tower at the center of the Grand Palais, to the reconstruction of Rue Cambon with the Palace of Coco Chanel - which was so perfectly rebuilt that you had the feeling you were in the actual street.

For Karl Lagerfeld no limitation comes between dreams and reality.

Massive sets were once designed also for John Galliano at Dior and for Alexander McQueen. Plenty of people work to carry out such huge productions on time, with night and day shifts. More than fashion shows, they are proper film sets, with proper set designers.

It's a pity that a fashion show only lasts for maximum an hour, and then the set is destroyed. A film, instead, lasts forever. But the emotions it can arouse are worth all this work, and emotions cannot be destroyed.

vogue.it/en/magazine/editor-s-blog

 

[sethii]

August 6th entry

We have already seen the role of fashion editors and stylists. But how do you actually produce photo shoots? How are they practically carried out?

I'll divide the key stages into points. Once the idea, or concept, of the photo shoot has been decided, the editor in charge of it gives all the information to the Production Assistant, who will then deal with the general organization. First of all, they will contact the photographer's agent, to discuss dates, then - only once the dates are set and after having received a list of the chosen makeup artists, hairstylists and models - they will send notice to the various agencies, to be sure to have the first choice.

It's also up to the Production Assistant to set the budget, according to the location picked by the location scouter, to find flights for editors, models, makeup artists and hairstylists and hotels for the entire crew.

The search for models follows a precise procedure, we'll talk about it in the next days.

Meanwhile, editors have all the chosen clothes and accessories sent to Milan wardrobe. Here in the wardrobe the final decisions are taken, and, once the clothes are decided, they end up in big suitcases, with regular booklets - that is to say authorizations for a temporary export - and are sent to photo studios, which can be anywhere in the world, from Paris to new York, London, Los Angeles, Miami, depending on where you want your pictures to be taken.

Also the clothes picked in foreign showrooms are flied to photo studios. When all the items of clothing are gathered in one point, the editors and their assistants will make a further selection.

While hairstylists, makeup artists, editors and photographer decide the mood of the photo shoot, the Production Assistant has do deal with the organization of the photo studios - if the shooting takes place in different studios - or, if it's an outdoor photo shoot, she has to hire a van. The latter turns into a mobile studio for all the duration of the shooting, where all the clothes and accessories are kept, where models get changed, hairdressers and makeup artists prepare the model and where photographer assistants keep lights, backgrounds and, most of all, create their headquarters with computers, to immediately check which the best pictures are, and decide any necessary change.

In this travelling studio they also have breakfast - which also implies a catering service, with all the relating whims.

The night before the beginning of the photo shoot everybody receives a call sheet via email - a sheet with all the details regarding meeting places and times, together with phone numbers of each participant to the photo shoot. While the pictures are taken, everybody has a very precise role, and everything must perfectly work.

That's rather impossible, though, as human factor is stronger than any machine. The model might not wake up, the customs might block the clothes, the photographer might change idea, the hairstylist's agent might have forgotten to say he/she had to leave the set absolutely by 5pm, because he/she has fly to the other side of the world, and so on. And everything is once again put under discussion. Normal routine.

Anyway, during photo shoots assistants have the most frenetic job: the photographer's assistants have to check lights and to immediately retouch pictures if necessary, the editor's one must write a detailed caption of clothes and accessories that have been used, at the same time fold the clothes that have already been photographed, put them back in the suitcases and contemporarily prepare the new ones for the following shot.

When the shoot is eventually finished, once everybody's back in the studios, the sorting of clothes starts, everything must be packed back into the suitcases and sent to the various countries of origin. The day after, everybody is back on their flights, everybody going to different directions. To new photo shoots.

Franca Sozzani
Published:
08/06/2010

vogue.it/en/magazine/editor-s-blog/2010/08/august-6th

 

[sethii]

Styling: is it an art? It's actually the fashion editor's job. What does it exactly mean?

It's a job made of research, of choices and of fantasy. No matter what school you attended. You have to form a harmonious whole, to understand how to match different items, to allow the model to express herself at her best through the chosen style, and to find the right accessories to combine with dresses: it's not a job for everybody.

It may sound banal. But actually, if you break that harmony, a previously wonderful outfit can turn into a horrible one, because of an excess or an imperfection. The model will then look homely and so will the picture.

Styling is not a question of having good taste or not, it's a question of having a sense of image and imagination. It means knowing what makeup or hairstyle suits the model and the style you want to give to the photo shoot.

Some times what you excessively highlight can look too strong, but it's useful to convey a message. Very short means short, very colorful means colorful, a mix of styles means freedom of choice.

When a stylist works for a magazine, she's free to express her own creativity, always according to the DNA of the magazine and after having received a precise briefing from the director.

If a stylist works for an ad campaign, instead, she will follow the designer's taste. For the designer it's an exchange of ideas, the stylist doesn't decide the outfits. She can give some advice, helping out with choices, but she doesn't have all the freedom she has in editorials. Advertisement follows very precise rules. The chosen clothes are usually the most sold, not necessarily the most creative. The latter are photographed by magazines.

Then there's the stylist for fashion shows. This is again a different job. Photos are just a click, if there are imperfections, like large shoes or too tight trousers, you can hide them. And after all with Photoshop you can now change whatever you want. On the catwalk, instead, every detail must be perfect. Photoshop does not exist.

You have to work night and day. Because usually clothes arrive at the very last moment and models in the evening. You need to figure out matchings and fittings - which mean checking if what you had in mind actually fits the model's body and which model it suits better. You definitely need aesthetic sensibility, a sense of proportions and the ability to work in symbiosis with the designer, the hairstylist and the makeup artist. It's a team work.

And finally there are stylists of celebrities. They normally are freelance editors for magazines or advertisement, who meet an actress or an actor, a singer or a socialite during a photo shoot. They immediately like each other and build confidence and mutual understanding, and the stylist turns into personal editor. She picks the clothes, not according to fashion, but according to the style of the star. The stylist has to interpret their taste at her best and find the best solutions.

We're not talking about trends: the star needs to have character, she is never a fashionista. She's not a model, she's a celebrity and as such she must be treated. The stylist can be an important help, some times even decisive. In good and in bad ways. Because at times when we see stars walking red carpets we all wonder: who dresses the poor actresses?

Franca Sozzani
Published:
08/05/2010

vogue.it/en/magazine/editor-s-blog/2010/08/august-5th

 

[sethii]

Perhaps this is the most recurring question. How do you become an editor and how do you get to the magazine, even just to obtain some visibility?

As for any other creative job, there isn't an only and unique rule. You can be taught everything but how to become creative, if you don't have a natural predisposition. However, you can learn how to become great professionals.

First of all in schools: fashion schools. If you attend a fashion school you won't necessarily become a designer. Schools are useful to learn the different aspects of this world. How to create a dress. How to match colors. Accessories, which ones and how to choose. How to distinguish fabrics and to know their names. And also to learn the history of clothing. Who the historical designers are and the contemporary ones. Learn to recognize photographers and their style. A bit of fashion culture is useful. Because you need to be creative, that's true, but you musn't be ignorant either!

There's also the advantage that schools invite us to see end-of-the-year rehearsals and we can find students that are more passionate about images, and therefore about an editorial job, rather than about becoming designers.

We always hire interns, for short periods, which anyway are enough to understand if that's really the job they want to do and if they have the right skills. But, as I said, that's not the rule: fashion schools are just one of the many options you have to get closer to a magazine.

Some editors studied medical science, some others law or architecture. While they were pursuing their careers, they realized, along the way, that they wanted to do a creative job. I myself graduated in classic studies and philosophy, with a dissertation on Germanic philology. Is there something less creative than that? One may ask. And how did I get to Italian Vogue?

Some times by writing, some times with the determination that only a person who really wants to succeed has, by doing dressers at fashion shows, or going to designers' showrooms or writing on blogs, or simply by doing the photographer outside defilés or by volunteering as stylist assistant. That's how people learn, and ask for information, and some times it happens they are fortunate enough to have an appointment scheduled.

And once you get the right chance you have to be able to keep it.

The editor doesn't have working hours, she doesn't know when she's going on a journey and when she's coming back. She can't make big plans. Forget about the myth of the editor who's perfectly dressed up, who wears very high heels and friendly chats with models and actresses, who travels to wonderful places, sits in the front rows of fashion shows and receives tons of presents. That only happens in movies.

For her everyday work she needs to go everywhere and look for dresses, accessories and new items in general. She has to go to showrooms, not only the ones of great designers, but of everybody, in fact especially to showrooms of unknown people. Because scouting is also part of the editor's job. Discovering new talents.

Then there are photo shoots. No matter if the weather is sunny or rainy, warm or cold. If you work outdoors, you need to have good stamina. The model is already suffering, an editor should instead solve problems.

Fashion shows. Everybody's dream. A nightmare at times. They start at 9am and finish at 10pm. You sit down, then stand up and run from one show to the other, stopping at presentations. An average of a dozen fashion shows and setting-ups. Multiply it by a week in New York, one in London, one in Milan and one in Paris. It's exhausting. But not always, fortunately.

The reward is seeing the printed magazine and finding your name in it. It's a passion, and passions never fade. However, you need to make many sacrifices.


Franca Sozzani
Published:
08/04/2010

vogue.it/en/magazine/editor-s-blog/2010/08/august-4th

 

[sethii]

Planning a magazine is not a mathematical operation, it's the result of a series of encounters, exchanges of opinion with designers and editors, projects and ideas that photographers send with their suggestions for photo shoots or simple inspirations arising from events people talk about, from a new film to the discovery of a new model.

The release of a new issue is a mix of perfect organization and absolute randomness. Practically speaking: the seasons begins, winter or summer, I go and see fashion shows with vice-director and editors, we meet photographers - while we are in New York, Paris or London for the defilés -, and freelance stylists. I visit designers, even just to share our thoughts on fashion, I listen to everybody's opinion and then, according to the different suggestions and ideas I've come up with or I've been told, I decide which articles or photo shoots to make, not with a monthly planning, but basically for the entire season: from January to May for summer, in June winter pre-collections, from July to November for winter and in December summer pre-collections.

While the fashion department works on precise themes, the news department meets with the managing editorto gather ideas and pieces of news, which they then submit to me. According to my decisions, the editorial starts working, they either write the articles themselves, or commission the several contributors to write. This is the practical part, but the most important part are ideas and creativity. Surprise.

This is what Vogue readers expect to find. And creativity does not follow fixed schemes. It comes naturally for a thousand reasons and some times causes significant changes.

Let me give you a couple of examples. Some years ago we dedicated an entire issue to plastic surgery, with Linda Evangelista playing protagonist. Did we have a plan? No, we didn't. The idea sprang, almost accidentally, from a conversation in New York over the huge and omnipresent topic people talked about at that time, which is still very recurring: to use or not to use botox, lifting and the various fillers. The images were strong but fun. The topic? A very topical theme which Steven Meisel interpreted with absolute mastery.
The same goes for two years ago, when I chose to dedicate an entire issue to black models. I was sitting at New York fashion shows and I suddenly realized I wasn't able to tell the difference between one model and the other. They were all beautiful, but all the same. The only one that really struck me each time she walked the catwalk was Liya Kebede. And that's when I decided to make an entire issue with black models only.

That very week Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton officially started competing. Just a coincidence. And anyway the issue was to be finished by the end of May. The electoral results were to be known only in July. Barack Obama won. The issue was extremely successful and had to be reprinted.

These are just two examples, but I could give you many others. Each issue is a surprise, no matter if everybody likes it or not. You need to dare and not to be afraid of changing things. This was just to explain that yes, we do make plans, but what's unexpected and surprising is there, in front of us. You have to be able to see it, to catch it and to have the courage to take risks.

If we planned everything with extreme nit-picking, we would risk to bore both ourselves and our readers to death.

Franca Sozzani
Published:
08/03/2010

Drawings by Bruno Frisoni




vogue.it/en/magazine/editor-s-blog/2010/08/august-3rd

 

[sethii]

More photos from the August 4th entry

Drawings by Steve Hiett




Miles Aldridge


[URL=http://img525.imageshack.us/i/drawings31031005bw1a993.jpg/]
[/URL]

vogue.it/en/magazine/editor-s-blog/2010/08/august-4th

 

[sethii]

continued...

Drawings by Tim Walker









vogue.it/en/magazine/editor-s-blog/2010/08/august-4th

 

[sethii]

Life at Vogue? Please forget about the Devil wears Prada. Miranda doesn't exist! There is no time for being brats. Plus I don't see who would take it or take "me".

In a creative world like this, each role has a precise task. There is the production and the closing of magazine issues, budgets and timings to respect.

It's true that our life is full of surprises and never the same. There is no routine. The journalists, mostly women, have their own role in the magazine. They are divided in between room according to their duties, and organize their own work.

The office is divided in fashion, news, beauty, creative direction, administration, wardrobe. There is a director, vice-director, an editor in chief, and news editor, beauty editor, and fashion editor. The other editors. In the art department, where the pages of the magazine get organized, there is an Art Director, an another Editor in chief, and a manager. In administration there is the secretary for the entire magazine, two for production, or photo shoots. The wardrobe has someone working there and fashion editors with their assistant. These are the jobs.

How do we actually live? It looks like total chaos. People come by, wait, constantly people coming in and out, models with their books in the hopes of getting a job, collaborators who bring their work in, fashion editors in and out of the wardrobe looking for clothes and accessories to photograph, and huge shopping bags get left in the hallway to be sent back to the wardrobe.

In all this confusion, everything still works perfectly. It's like we have chosen the actors and once we start rolling it's on, everyone goes where he should go without bumping on someone else. In the offices phones keep ringing and there are countless emails. The editors in chief organize meetings to assign everyone his task, and then everybody goes off to do his own job.

Don't think for one second it's like Miranda's clean and spotless office. Newspapers, composits, articles, photos we are not using, dictionaries, bags full of perfumes, creams, catalogues, books to review, everything is everywhere. Even on the floor and on the desks.

Sometimes, like magic, everything disappears and reappears couple days later. The materials we receive everyday is enormous. The wardrobe is like a dream come true for every woman. Big rooms where you can all of the clothes and accessories you like. You find everything! The editors make their pick and the rest gets sent back to the designers' press offices.

It's not true that the director goes to choose herself the clothes. Miranda stays in her office or travels. I haven't seen the wardrobe for ten years! I make my picks at fashion shows only for important pieces.

It's a frenetic life, there are no breaks. No hours, maybe just an estimate. There is no beginning or end. It depends on the amount of work and the moment. You can't really commit to something post Vogue. You never know. New York is six hours behind and Los Angeles nine. We always get emergencies.

The work in a fashion magazine can be a dream and sometimes true hell. But you are never in a limbo!!!

Franca Sozzani
Published:
08/02/2010

vogue.it/en/magazine/editor-s-blog/2010/08/august-2nd

 

[sethii]

continued...







vogue.it/en/magazine/editor-s-blog/2010/08/august-2nd

 

[TomFordforGucci]

Interesting questionaire. I enjoyed the part of the process of composing editorials.
Thanks for posting

 

[CrisGalaxy]

Wow, their offices are really messy! I would hate to get up every morning goto work and sit on that chair with all those papers around me, but damn it would feel so great to say "I work for Italian Vogue"!

 

[sethii]

According to my original plan, I should have dealt with the topic of covers in one of the last of these 21 episodes about life at Italian Vogue, as the cover is the last choice to be taken, before closing the magazine. However, the attention drawn by the August cover with model Kirsten Mc Menamy wrapped up in black clothes and covered in oil, while lying on a beach which was also black to simulate the environmental disaster caused by the oil spill off the coasts of America, convinced me to talk about it now. The New York Times, on Saturday, amply discussed this cover, wondering if it's a deliberate protest against the damages that mankind can cause to nature, or a smart choice to sell more copies.

The reactions of readers immediately turned up on the website of the NYT, with thousands of positive answers and some negative ones, which is normal when you move in a provocative way. Dealing with current affairs convinces our readers and people appreciate - despite the resulting discussions and criticism - that a fashion magazine "visually" deals with actual events.

Why not? After all, there are films, artistic performances, theater pieces on violent events that surround us, why should a magazine be uprooted from reality, giving a stereotyped image of a glamour that is an end in itself? As I said more than once, inspiration can arise from any fact, event, fashion, or from a simple gesture or glance, besides films and characters.

The beauty of covers is that they catch the attention of readers. A cover must arouse curiosity, interest, even wonder. It should surprise, at each issue. It should never offend others, though. I would never put on the cover war scenes or the scuffles between those gentlemen in the Parliament who should represent us in the Government. Both are tragic situations, for different reasons. I think it's important to talk about current affairs, always showing respect.

The same question was posed by important foreign newspapers with regards to the Black issue. Was it a smart strategy to increase the number of sold copies, riding on the wave of Obama's success, or a proper denunciation that black models are much less booked? Or again, the issue with paparazzi-like images, similar to those of gossip magazines: an urge to say the truth, or to increase the press run? Not to mention plastic surgery.

Why talking about something everybody makes but denies making? Is it a denunciation of a fashion which is creating monsters in the whole world, or the awareness that such topic would have drawn the attention of readers at newsstands? The answer is that we first think about the topic, and only if the topic is successful, we will then gain new readers.

All the facts I've talked about are and were there, within everybody's reach. Everybody could see them and, if it really was just a question of cunning, they could have published them, also considering the fact that weekly publications have the possibility of spreading any piece of news in advance. But we were the ones to see them! And that's why Italian Vogue is different from anything else, also in taking risks and criticism.

Covers are created in the following way. First of all, the initial photo shoot is made, the so called "cover story", that is to say the main story, with which the magazine opens and which is always shot by Steven Meisel. The cover is the picture that best tells that story in the inner pages. Therefore, it will have the same makeup, hairstyle and environment. It's shot separately, at the end of the photo shoot. It must have a precise cut, to contain Vogue cover sheet. The cover can be a single vertical image or a double image, that is to say a horizontal image printed on two pages, one of them is visible on the external cover, and the other is folded and you can open it from the inside.

When printing the magazine, you can make up other solutions, like multiple pages - like for the Black issue - or a double page that you can unfold from the bottom, like a poster. And the subjects? It can be really anything: from the beauty of a new model, via a new and unexpected way of dressing, a trend that started in the streets (see Grunge), an actress who became famous because she took part to a film, to an event that came to the fore in columns, even gossip columns.

Each time, it's important to find a concept and to believe in it. Glamour, sophistication, eccentricity and elegance are the most recurring elements when we think about stories. But the unexpected is what really makes Italian Vogue, Italian Vogue.

Franca Sozzani
Published:
08/10/2010

vogue.it/en/magazine/editor-s-blog/2010/08/august-10th

 

[Tigertonio]

^Thank you so much for posting this piece. What an insightful, open-minded, wonderfully creative woman. And I'll remember that last line forever:

But the unexpected is what really makes Italian Vogue, Italian Vogue.

She must be counting her blessings every time a new issue is released...and thankful that she doesn't have the rigid, corporate restraints that many of her counterparts experience in their work environments.

 

[farou7a]

^ love it!

 

[sethii]

In the fashion department there's the production assistant (we have already seen she organizes fashion shoots) and a model scouter, who looks for new faces. She daily gets in touch with the various modeling agencies in cities like New York, Paris and Milan, through bookers (the people who take care, in the agency, of a certain number of models or, in the case of well-established models, of a single model), who recommend the most promising models, sending their portfolios (big file holders containing published pictures, not the models' personal ones).

Another way to carry out a research is browsing the various websites, where you can find composits (profiles with photos and information on the sizes of each model) and videos. The same research is carried out during "go-sees", that is to say when models directly go to editorials to be seen in person. Many very young models at the beginning of their careers don't have a good portfolio, therefore the editor in charge of the photo shoot and the model scouter see them together and take some Polaroids or digital photos to be kept in the archive, but also to be sent to photographers.

The same work that is constantly done in the editorial, is also done by photographers' studios, when a photo shoot needs to be organized. Thus there's a continuous and nonstop exchange of views between the editorial and photo studios, to discuss whether models are suitable for that photo shoot or not. The final decision is taken by the photographer. The photographer will decide according to his photographic style but also according to the idea of the photo shoot. A model, how ever beautiful she is, may not be suitable for each photographer, or for each kind of story.

There are very few models who had and have that strength, and we always recall them: Linda Evangelista and Kate Moss. They are chameleon women who are able to play different roles and characters, sometimes even the opposite of who they actually are. Usually models, even if they are very good at acting or posing as the photographer requires, have their own way of being, which is very personal and recognizable. Moreover, each photographer has his/her own ideal beauty and view. In short, what a model transmits to a photographer is not necessarily what she transmits to others.

Being picked by a great photographer like Steven Meisel and ending up on the cover of Italian Vogue may certainly change a model's career. Photographers are the scouters par excellence, because they can actually create a model. How many girls, with just a few pictures and sometimes not particularly beautiful, have been chosen by Peter Lindbergh and Bruce Weber or other important photographers, and have suddenly turned into stars or super-models? How many times have people wondered why this girl and not a more beautiful one? Because, once again, it's not just a question of beauty, but of character and ability to play the role the photographer requires at that very moment.

It's a question of attitude and abilities. The model is picked if she corresponds to the photographer's vision, to the role she has to "play" in that photo shoot and, most of all, to the magazine style. And, let's be honest, to the current fashion. Because even beauty has its temporary periods and is subject to trends. It was because of the trend of using all these tall girls, all with blond hair and blue eyes, that I decided to dedicate an issue to black girls. A model is also picked as a reaction to rampant stereotypes. And that's why personality is so important, besides beauty.

Franca Sozzani
Published:
08/11/2010

vogue.it/en/magazine/editor-s-blog/2010/08/august-11th

 

[sethii]

A more correct question would be: "how to become a photographer", and afterwards "how to become a Vogue photographer". This is definitely one of the most recurring questions, and I'm sure that, as there is no formula and as I have no magic wand, the answer will be disappointing for many of you. Choosing to become a photographer is not like opting for a "rational" profession, made of numbers, formulae and technical solutions. It's like choosing to become artist, painter, sculptor.

It's a question of creative potentiality and innate talent. Photography schools help you understand the historical and visual process in the course of time, sure, they will teach you the theoretic and practical sides. But that something that makes you differ from others, it can't be taught by anybody. You have to make it up by yourself. I think the important thing is finding your own way of taking pictures, your own style, trying not to replicate any other photographer. It's fundamental to work on your own imaginative world, forgetting what others do and looking for your own identity, your own concept.

It's not true that in photography everything has already been said. On the contrary, this is a great moment to come out from that dark Photoshop tunnel, where if not everybody, many people have fallen into. It's a fantastic time to find new paths, truer and less stereotyped. There's enough space. How to find some space? Daring. Working, even alone, and researching. Preparing a portfolio with unique, special photos.

You don't necessarily have to be a fashion photographer to work for a fashion magazine. Bruce Weber took pictures of sportspeople, real people, of the places he lived in, and his ability was that of transferring his world into the world of fashion, without losing his personality, his taste, his style. He used his world and turned it into Bruce Weber's world.

Herb Ritts was a movie still photographer and he kept on taking pictures as if he were shooting a film. Steven Meisel taught drawing and his in-depth search for details, together with his ability of illustrating situations and people, has remained in his photography. Tim Walker loved taking pictures of nature, of English gardens, of typically British people, with that imaginative madness that later became a peculiarity of his photos.

Looking into your own world helps you find your personal way of interpreting things. That's what becoming a Vogue photographer means. It means proposing a different world from the ones that our other photographers already offer. That doesn't mean being different in the sense of being strange or an end in yourself, but in the sense of offering another imaginative world. Be it a dream-like or a real "track", it doesn't matter. It has to be a new track, that's it. That's what Italian Vogue looks for.

When I see the portfolios of young photographers I look for an emotion, something that tells me that's it's worth trying. How can you show at least your portfolio to the editorial? Those who have an agent usually rely on them. When the agents think the photographer is "mature" enough to show their portfolio, they will schedule an appointment with me.

Many young people still don't have an agent willing to invest on them, and therefore need to do everything alone. Some of them send their portfolios to the editorial, some others send emails with their last works. Some fix an appointment through the production assistant. That's how many young photographers have started and they now work either for Italian Vogue or for other magazines. They found their way be seen.

Anyway, stay tuned, because in Autumn we will launch an initiative to give young photographers the possibility of showing us their work. The research never ends in a magazine, and anybody with ability and creativity can be a potential new Vogue photographer.

Franca Sozzani
Published:
08/12/2010

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[sethii]

During a photo shoot, hairstylists are absolutely fundamental. According to a hairstyle or to a way of emphasizing the head, the whole look of the story can change. When you organize a photo shoot - besides obviously choosing photographer and model - the first question should be: "Who's doing hair and makeup?".

Once, it wasn't very important, because I think photography, even fashion photography, was mainly considered as reportage, as an account of what had happened on catwalks, and not as a proper image, with its creative and artistic value.

In the early 80s, with Bruce Weber, the rules of perfect hairstyles collapsed, the classic cuts, and were substituted for disheveled hair, sometimes even wild. A sign that also fashion was changing and that messy and unfinished hair - imported from Japan - was the new trend.

Even if more conservative hairstyles still resisted, that was the new mood. With Peter Lindbergh many models had their hair cut, creating rather masculine and "badly made" hairstyles, that only Julien D'Ys could create. And what actually started Linda Evangelista's career - until then still unimaginable - was that very haircut, fist Beatles-like and later on with plenty of variations.

That first haircut became so iconic of Linda's style, that in London you could easily find wigs "in the style of Evangelista". Since then, not only did haircut change, but also color, and with Steven Meisel she turned ginger-head, blond, platinum blond, black, when she had to interpret Kathrine Hepburn or Marylin Monroe, or simply herself. Also Kate Moss has changed several hairstyles before choosing her current one. She even had short pink hair!

During a photo shoot, hairstyle trials are the ones that take the most time. It's not that easy to find the right one, and often what you had previously imagined on a model is not the final choice. The torture that is sometimes inflicted to the poor girls is never-ending. Their hair is straightened, curled, dyed, tied-up, ruffled. Hair is the primary accessory, that will influence clothes and final image. That's why hairstylists are fundamental.

At the beginning of his career, Steven Meisel did everything by himself: hairstyle and makeup. But at that time the habit of employing makeup artist and hairstylist didn't exist. They were helpful, nothing more. Nowadays they are so important that they have all signed millionaire contracts with cosmetic companies, which would do anything to hire them and have exclusive rights for them. Some even create their own cosmetic lines. They all have agents that deal with bookings for magazines and contracts for advertisement, whose tariffs per day can be up to some thousands of Euros.

A job that was once confined to a shop can now, with creativity, take you all over the world, and make you as sought-after and respected as a star. To the extent that if "that" hairstylist isn't available, the photo shoot is postponed. Another example of a successful job in the world of magazines.

Franca Sozzani
Published:
08/13/2010

vogue.it/en/magazine/editor-s-blog/2010/08/august-13th

 

[kasper!]

Is she fully in charge of vogue.it?

I love their site,user experience is great.Plus everything has English/Italiano version.My professor at the Italian class would be very happy for me.

 

[sethii]

Yes it's a great site...lots of interesting sections like Vogue Black. I've watched almost all the video interviews there. I love that there are no pop-ups or another annoying ads.

 

[tentalicious]

Since 1988, Franca Sozzani has been the fearless editor-in-chief of Vogue Italia, the fashion bible that is seen as the most audacious of all Vogues. The magazine has several offshoots, such as the pleasantly obscure, interior periodical Casa Vogue, which is a welcome antipole to so many stale design magazines today. Franca’s older sister Carla is the founder of 10 Corso Como, the luxury department store in Milan. Together, the Sozzani sisters basically rule Italian fashion.

Carlo Antonelli: My first question isn’t about Vogue Italia but about one of its side projects that we all love dearly. How do you go about making Casa Vogue?
Franca Sozzani: You know what makes Casa Vogue good? The fact that it doesn’t have a script. I love it and I love making it. We just do what feels right. There is no big Casa Vogue plan. The idea behind it is simple: it is what homes tell us about their owners, not about their architects. You live in your home in the same way you wear your clothes. Personally, I wouldn’t even allow an architect to design the tiles in my bathroom – it would drive me mad. You have to do your own thing, choose the things you personally like. I would never hire an architect to design my house, in the same way that I would never wear clothes that are recognizably from one particular designer. I don’t like wearing somebody else’s style. The great thing about Casa Vogue is that we have no restrictions. And I’m not talking about commercial restrictions in terms of advertising: I mean even in terms of the concept. If we decide we like trashy homes, or shabby homes, or something else, we’ll make it happen. Its lack of structure is a way of life.

Which is similar to your own way of life?
Yes.

How would you define that? Is it a search for natural beauty?
Yes, and allowing things to take their own shape.

Casa Vogue also seems to have an obsession with a certain Oscar Wildean type of upper class: with disgraced nobility. Some might even define it as morbid.
It’s because I believe it takes time to acquire taste. It doesn’t take money, thank God.

And when did you acquire taste?
I don’t know. If I think of my sister and how she has turned out today, maybe we’ve both had it since our childhood.

What was your parents’ house like?
At one point my father developed a love for everything ultramodern, for Swedish design. When we moved to Milan we lived in a skyscraper, which was considered strange at the time.

You came from Mantua, am I correct?
Yes, but we only lived there when we were young. We studied in Milan, and then I went to France and Carla moved to Turin. Until we both ended up back in Milan.

So when did you realize that your personal taste could become your job? Was working at Vogue something that you had planned, or was it just one of those things that happen in life?
I had no idea. I have a degree in literature, philosophy and Germanic philology. To be honest, I never thought I would even work at all. I never saw myself as a career girl.

Great! Finally somebody who dares to admit it. How did you see yourself?
I saw myself with children, playing golf…

Married?
Yes. I married when I was 20. I thought that was my life. Why do anything else?

It was your mother’s and your grandmothers’ life too.
My mother has so much energy even though she’s really old now. We went out for dinner recently and some men at the table next to us said, “How wonderful for your mother to go out at night.” They thought she was 82. But she’s 97! They couldn’t believe it. So then she stood up, leaning on her cane, and said, “I haven’t led a very tiring life.”

Ha ha!
It certainly helps your wellbeing.

So what happened?
I married when I was 20, and I got divorced after three months. I thought I needed to do something more intelligent.

I don’t want to get too personal, but a divorce after three months sounds like a big deal for somebody from a family such as yours, in Italy back then.
Are you kidding? Obviously I had the vows annulled by the Sacred Roman Rota.

Wow. Scandal.
Scandalissimo! But I knew it wasn’t the life I wanted. So I went for a job interview and they gave me the job. And from then on I started rising through the ranks. I worked at Vogue Bambini, I was editor of Lei when I was 29 and Per Lui when I was 31. I was quick.

Was it a very natural climb?
Well, I was also very lucky. You know, some people left at the right time. In life you have to be lucky. You can be a genius, but if you aren’t in the right place at the right time, genius is worthless. When Oliviero Toscani and Gisella Borioli left Vogue, I ended up there by myself, with just an assistant and the switchboard operator.

And then you messed up Vogue…
It was already a mess.

But you messed it up even more.
Well, I changed everything. They wanted Vogue to remain what it was: a trade-only magazine where everything was decided in a very structured way: one Krizia outfit, one Armani outfit, one Versace outfit, one Ferré outfit. The making of my first cover is a fantastic story. We had to choose between a Valentino dress and a Lancetti dress. So Giancarlo Giammetti, Valentino’s partner, said to me, “Please give it to the one that deserves it the most.” So I gave it to Yves Saint Laurent, ha ha! It was a riot!

Where you were a punk avant la lettre?
I love destroying things, breaking with the past.

You appointed Steven Meisel as the photographer to shoot all the Vogue covers. How long has he been doing that now?
It’s something like 22 years now, since I first discovered him. I felt like I had no other choice. Because you either force a magazine to get a very specific image, or you’ll never get one. You could maybe achieve it by using a group of photographers, but I chose to use just one. And I used models instead of actresses. It was around the start of the ‘supermodel’ era.
Where does your love for printed media come from?
For me it was all about photography.

It doesn’t come from a childhood passion for magazines.
Not at all. I used to consume fashion itself, not magazines. I was obsessed with Yves Saint Laurent.

And eventually you went on to – please excuse my language – bust some balls on the international market.
Don’t forget that I am working in Italian, a language that is only spoken in Italy. I mean, people don’t even speak Italian in Brooklyn anymore. It’s only spoken here, which is a bit restricting. If you’re lucky enough to speak English, well, then you can communicate with the whole world, from China to India … I can only speak to Italians. That’s it. So the only way we could speak to everyone was through images, and that’s why I gave photography so much more space than words. Also, if you want an image that speaks to everyone, it has to be impossible to ignore. It has to be much, much more extreme than the normal boring images that everyone is used to. I think that’s what led to the explosion of Vogue Italia.

Did you ever feel like you were crashing a party where you weren’t exactly welcome?
You know what? It isn’t so much that I don’t care at all, but I really don’t care that much about other people’s opinions. Really. You can’t be loved by everyone. It’s impossible.

It must take a lot of courage.
Of course. And I am sure I published a lot of ugly things, extreme things, or simply things that didn’t turn out well. But they always had an element of research, and courage. Even when the things we ran were so ugly I didn’t even like them myself, I still ran them. It was a way of saying: “Let’s try to move forward. It might not be right for now, but it might point us in the right direction.”

A lack of fear is something you appreciate in general, right?
Yes, absolutely. You should never be afraid of change, of going too far, of facing things. There are two things I never lose: I never lose my courage, and I never lose sleep. Even in the most hectic moments of my life I try sleep twelve hours per day.

Twelve hours? Always?
Well, at least nine hours. And sometimes I manage to sleep twelve hours. Obviously I live a very balanced life.

Do you ever get mad at people?
Yes. But only for a second and it’s never personal. But I always have the courage to get mad. I have terrible fights with the photographers I work with.

Like?
“You will never work with me again!” – “No, you will never work with me again!”

So could we say that the best thing that ever happened to you was your marriage that ended after three months?
Absolutely.

Do you ever hear from him?
No. I never saw him again.

[Text by Carlo Antonelli]
[Portrait by The Sartorialist]

-Courtesy of COS Magazine-​