Inside Vogue’s December Issue

Vogue

Director: Nina Ljeti Director of Photography: Michael Lopez Editor: Katie Wolford Senior Producer: Bety Dereje Producer, On Set: Rahel Gebreyes Associate Producer: Lea Donenberg Assistant Camera: Kahdeem Prosper Jefferson, Jack Kelly Gaffer: Eric Hinsperger Audio: Lily van Leeuwen, Nicole Maupin Production Assistants: Quinton Johnson, Christina Lamagna Makeup Artist: Marcelo Gutierrez Hairstylist: Joseph Handwerker Groomer: Jennifer Brent Production Coordinator: Ava Kashar Production Manager: Natasha Soto-Albors Line Producer: Romeeka Powell Senior Director, Production Management: Jessica Schier Assistant Editors: Billy Ward, Justin Symonds Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter Art &amp; Graphics Lead: Léa Kichler Colorist: Oliver Eid Audio Mix: Nick Cipriano, BANG Supervising Editor: Erica DeLeo Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch Associate Director, Post Production: Nicholas Ascanio Global Talent Casting Director: Ignacio Murillo Director, Content Production: Rahel Gebreyes Senior Director, Video: Romy van den Broeke Senior Director, Programming: Linda Gittleson VP, Video Programming: Thespena Guatieri  Photography By Role Play: Steven Meisel Impossible Beauty: Carlijn Jacobs Home: Gregory Crewdson Dance, Dance, Dance: Inez &amp; Vinoodh  Additional Footage Courtesy Of Harper Glantz, Anna Weyant, Ariel Dearie

Transcript

00:00I just wanted to celebrate creativity and freedom and movement, style, art, just things

00:11that I feel we desire.

00:13We don't need them, we want them, and they are important because we want them.

00:20Hi, everyone.

00:24So, the way we usually do this is we start with the front, and then we move to the well,

00:32and then as the big reveal at the end, we look at the cover, or in this case, covers.

00:38When Anna approached me with the idea in mind that I would be a guest editor, my initial

00:42reaction to it was, I don't know how I could do this.

00:45I don't feel confident in my abilities, so I didn't really believe I was up to it.

00:51But Anna can be very persuasive, and I shared the news with Michael Arellano and Nick Newbold,

00:57and they said, what do you think?

00:58And, you know, we all kind of came to the same conclusion, if I didn't say yes, I'd

01:02regret it.

01:03So, these are the content pages.

01:05Okay, TOC, right?

01:06Yes.

01:07I learned that from Taylor yesterday, and the journey.

01:10We were going through the issue with Anna, like, spread by spread, page by page, just

01:15reviewing it so that we could finally say, yes, this is it, we've seen it together, we've

01:20said goodbye, and see you soon, kind of thing.

01:28Now we go into...

01:29Kaya.

01:30Kaya.

01:31You've seen these pictures.

01:32I've seen those pictures.

01:33That was the first shoot we did for the magazine.

01:34Yeah.

01:35It was a love fest, you know, between Grace, me, Kaya, Stephen, Pat, Guido, it was just

01:39heaven.

01:40I have to drop one of them, and I don't know what one to drop.

01:46I mean, this one, architecturally, it's fantastic.

01:51This is a bit too colorful, maybe.

01:54There's a blue one.

01:55Yeah, we could go back and change it out.

01:57This really gives me Kaya.

02:00Yeah.

02:01When I heard Mark was going to be guest editing this issue, and when they asked me to do the

02:07cover, yeah, I was so thrilled that he thought of me for it.

02:10Our collaboration has meant so much to me and done so much for my career that to be

02:15able to celebrate it in this way is, like, such an honor.

02:18Willow, should we just wheel these next door, and then she can try them?

02:22Yeah, let's do it.

02:23Which one do you want to start with?

02:24I felt like she would be a great cover, because of who she is, because of the history I have

02:28with her, and because of the work that she's doing.

02:30Do you want leather or satin?

02:32Oh, that one's very good on you.

02:35I think it's absolutely...

02:36That's how I feel like my posture actually is.

02:42I was really excited when I got to the fitting, because they had all of the 2024 collection

02:46that Mark did, which was playing so much with proportional, these, like, big oversize dresses

02:51and extreme versions of silhouettes.

02:53Your arms, what can you do?

02:57Anything forward is fine.

02:58And down.

02:59And down.

03:00Yeah.

03:01No up and down.

03:02You can't do this.

03:03I think fashion can take itself very seriously sometimes, and sometimes it should.

03:09But I also think it's so important to have satire.

03:12Mark always did such a good job of, like, taking the work really seriously, but not

03:18letting the clothes be too self-serious.

03:20I've never heard so much laughter in a pre-shoot fitting, because it's like every outfit makes

03:27you smile, or it's a challenge.

03:31What a joy to be able to bring those feelings into people through the clothes that you create.

03:37And it was the same at his fittings.

03:39Like, it was such a breath of fresh air of, like, oh, we can enjoy this.

03:43It was a nice reminder of, like, this should be fun.

03:53Anna Weyant, who's one of my very favorite artists, is painting Kaya in the blue lace dress.

03:59From the beginning, I wanted her to do a cover.

04:02I thought it would be very exciting to have an Anna Weyant portrait of a young woman.

04:08I think she's a great artist, and I wanted to see her work championed in Vogue.

04:18The energy in the studio was very, very good.

04:21It just went so well, and I got to work with Grace and Kaya and Guido and Pat, which is

04:25like the dream team.

04:31We've decided the hair needs to be fuller.

04:36We're joking.

04:37It's like three wigs that have been sewn together.

04:40I kind of wanted this kind of ledge, so Kaya has a very sort of long neck in the picture.

04:47And because the kind of the clothing is so exaggerated, I wanted the hair to be exaggerated too.

04:54Guido is, I usually refer to him as a sculptor more than a hair stylist.

05:01This would be good on the lips as well, right?

05:04And then Pat, the same way, like she truly is an artist.

05:08I just have so much trust in both of them.

05:11I go in and I'm like, I am your canvas.

05:13You can do whatever you want.

05:14And I'm always so blown away at so much of the things that I've learned about beauty.

05:19And I use the word beauty, but it's really like art is from collaborating with them.

05:28This is what I narrowed it down to.

05:30No, but you can't, because you've got to do that as well, right?

05:33Well, I can do seven because I can do six plus a cover.

05:36The cover is by, I think, the greatest fashion photographer we have, Stephen Mizell.

05:42He's so fast. He knows exactly what he wants.

05:45And it's just like, we've done three of six.

05:49I think you're seeing what it is because Kaya's been created in this very stylized version of herself.

05:56And she's putting on these clothes, which are very stylized versions of icons.

06:00She's in front of a colorful backdrop and Stephen's just shooting her in these wonderful positions and poses,

06:06which are very playful, but still done in a very sophisticated way.

06:10There's nothing wacky or zany about the pictures.

06:13They're actually just very beautiful portraits and fashion pictures.

06:19In the middle of November, right after the election, whichever way it goes,

06:22I'd like to put something out that's about fashion, about creativity,

06:27and about the joy of making things, creating things, seeing them come to life.

06:32So no matter what happens in the world, politically or otherwise,

06:35it's essential that creativity continues and that we make and move and find joy in everything we do.

06:44And then, did you read it?

06:47Did you read it?

06:49Jeremy O'Hanks.

06:50Jeremy wrote a piece about wearing a corset, which is a bit of a stretch when you look at it with the nails, but we're working on it.

06:57I don't think Vogue really does those beauty features so much anymore.

07:01But one of the things that I always loved about Vogue were these incredible pen images,

07:07which I did want some of that spirit.

07:10I wanted a kind of real focus on two things that I feel are very exciting in the beauty world,

07:17and one of them is lashes and the other is nails.

07:20With going to Jeremy, what we talked about is this idea of desire,

07:24and whether it's a dress that Venus Williams couldn't sit down in at the Met.

07:28It's like when you have to have something because it's that desirable to you.

07:32There are lashes you can't see out of.

07:34There are nails you can't pick things up with.

07:36And corsets you can't breathe in.

07:38Dresses you can't sit down in.

07:39Yeah, so we just need to make it a little bit more...

07:43Make that point.

07:44Yeah.

07:45Let me get shimmer for the shoulder.

07:49As I was describing it to Taylor, I felt, oh, I like this idea of impossible beauty.

07:54And what I kind of meant by that is that I've heard this so many times.

07:58The head of production, Danuta, at our office would say, but she can't raise her arm because the armhole's too tight.

08:05You can't walk in those heels because they're too high.

08:08You can't use a computer or laptop because you've got long fingernails.

08:11So I just thought, why do we do this?

08:14Why do we do this to ourselves?

08:15Why would they put themselves in danger by wearing a dress or a heel or a nail?

08:20And the answer is that because you just love them so much that it's not form following function.

08:26Wow, beautiful.

08:31Amazing.

08:33We've got to place the nails a little bit.

08:36This has to do with desire and wanting something so much that you're willing to put up with, you know, the discomfort.

08:46Can you explain the thinking here?

08:48You know, I was absolutely not interested in doing the house at all.

08:53And then you gave me a little pressure on it.

08:55I thought, OK, well, it needed to go in a completely different direction that wasn't at all about decor, but about my comfort at home.

09:04Gregory Crudson image, I think, is probably the most personal.

09:07Well, it definitely is the most personal to me.

09:10And Gregory doesn't do things like this.

09:13He's turned down many requests over the years.

09:17But he was interested and open.

09:21So we made a date for him to come to the house.

09:25Then he just asked to have some time alone in the room that he was interested in photographing.

09:30And then he would write a kind of paragraph about how he saw the image.

09:36And he wrote it as if it were a script.

09:40Well, it's a Frank Lloyd Wright house.

09:42It's like a historic monument to beauty and solitude, I think.

09:47Entering into your home and knowing how much thought and everything you've done to make this your home.

09:54I wanted that all reflected in the picture in my own way.

09:58Because I had to make it my own.

10:02The logistics started.

10:04And it was a team of, I think, 40 or more people.

10:08And there was all kinds of machinery and lighting equipment.

10:12And then Ariel came in and she brought all these different flowers that she knew I would like.

10:18And then Gregory chose the vase with the flowers and the robe and the blanket.

10:23The blanket run through was also a thing.

10:25What blanket would Charlie have that would show some suggestion of his body but not be too big, not too small.

10:30Be the right cut light.

10:32There were a lot of those.

10:34Then it came time to shoot.

10:35And that was also late in the day.

10:38Gregory was like, we only have a 45-minute window for the light in the house to match the light outside of the house.

10:43And then there were people running around with fog machines.

10:47And then it's chaotic.

10:49There's big machines and there's big lights and there's generators.

10:53But at the end of it, if it all works, it's so quiet and it's so peaceful.

10:59Focused on Charlie. Focus is on Charlie. We're shooting Charlie.

11:03And hold shooting.

11:06Nice.

11:07And then, like, you never know if you're going to get it.

11:09I was slightly guessing.

11:11But when you sat in that chair and then got that expression, I was like, oh, yeah, that's it.

11:16In my imagination, the care, the nurturing, and all that goes into raising a beautiful kid is like the way I feel we've approached this project.

11:27We had to take care of it. We had to be patient with it, et cetera.

11:31And then we get you to preserve all of those feelings and all that thinking in your own image.

11:40OK, so now we go into the portfolio.

11:43Look, Broadway. We love.

11:46We did this great dance portfolio and tried to capture, you know, the movement and the emotions of different styles and types of dance.

11:54I know you prefer this picture.

11:56I totally prefer this picture. And you don't.

11:58So do we flip a coin?

12:00That's a good solution.

12:01On the list of things we wanted to portray was a very particular type of avant-garde dance.

12:08And there was a model, and her facial expressions were verging on the grotesque, but beautifully.

12:15And I don't think that's something that Anna really has, like, the space for.

12:20If you don't like her, which I know you don't, this was a double-page spread.

12:24So why not just make it a double-page spread and not worry about another image?

12:28Can you try this quickly as a double-page for me?

12:31It didn't seem likely that we'd ever come to some agreement over that particular image.

12:37So I kind of felt like, rather than replacing it with something I didn't like, it'd be better just not to have another image on the spread.

12:45She's so sweet, this girl here on the end.

12:47I love the makeup. Really beautiful.

12:51The dance portfolio with Inez and Vanuud, you know, it went through a couple of phases.

12:55The dance portfolio with Inez and Vanuud, you know, it went through a couple of, like, conversations

12:59before we got to what we were doing and how we were going to do it.

13:02But we started off the shoot with this set within the studio that looked like a club.

13:08The idea was that there would be different types of dance introduced,

13:12where then people would, like, kind of back up, and there would be, like, on the sides,

13:15watching these other people compete with their different types of dance.

13:21There's nothing quite like it. It's very hard for me to articulate.

13:24It happened in the studio when we were doing that shoot.

13:27Yes, Amara!

13:28Smiling from ear to ear.

13:30I don't know what to do.

13:34When you see somebody standing in front of you, and they start to move,

13:38and you just think, like, oh my God.

13:40And it's like, you can feel it.

13:42It's just like, this is so moving and so breathtaking.

13:50Period.

13:52That was beautiful.

13:54You know, this whole issue, being that it's December and comes out in November,

13:58we've had this discussion because it will come out right after the election.

14:02Dance could either seem like this wonderful, free expression,

14:07and it could create feelings of, like, elation and joy.

14:10Or it could look like, why are they dancing?

14:12That's the last thing in the world.

14:13But then I thought, like, the idea of the spirit is something that we all,

14:18in fashion, I think, understand.

14:20And it's like, we love the creativity of it.

14:22We love expressing ourselves through the choices we make.

14:25And that should never change, regardless of what happens in the world.

14:29It doesn't mean it's more important than these great issues in the world.

14:33But you can't lose sight of how vital or how important creativity is

14:38and the joy that it brings people.

14:53And this is just amazing, I think.

14:55I mean, I think the important thing now are the color lines.

14:58Or if you wanted to try a different color logo.

15:01No, the white's nice.

15:02I like the white.

15:03If you were right, like, this is a better…

15:05I like it.

15:06Yeah, no, I think it's better than the headshot.

15:08It is. It's fashion.

15:12I am very excited about this issue.

15:14I never, if you'd asked me ever in my whole lifespan,

15:20I never would have thought I would be a guest editor at Vogue.

15:23I mean, I never thought I'd ever even have a dress in Vogue,

15:26let alone be the guest editor of Vogue.

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