Alexandra Shulman, Former British Vogue Editor-in-Chief of 25 Years, on Life at the Top of the Masthead, Writing Fiction and Memoirs, and Making Fashion More Inclusive

In addition to Friday being International Women’s Day, March is Women’s History Month, and that seemed the perfect time to have this series I’ve been concocting in my brain for a while called Women in Power. I am so proud and happy to share my conversations with you! Also, at the end of each episode in this series, I’ll be sharing three books by three female writers whose collections I love, so stick around after the interview for that. Our first guest in the Women in Power series is a legend in the magazine space: Alexandra Shulman, who was editor-in-chief of British Vogue for 25 years. A full quarter century! She is the longest-serving editor in the position and took the helm in 1992; she has become one of the U.K.’s most respected voices in fashion since. Her 25 years at the top of the masthead included many iconic issues of the magazine, like the December 1999 “Millennium Issue,” which became the highest-selling issue of Vogue. You’ll hear me speak about this with her, but I always respected Alexandra’s stance that the magazine never publish pieces on diets or cosmetic surgery, as she didn’t want to tell women a specific way they should look. While still editor in-chief, she published a novel, Can We Still Be Friends?, in 2012, and in 2016, highlighting British Vogue’s centenary year, she published the book Inside Vogue: My Diary of Vogue’s 100th Year. In January 2017, nearing the quarter-century mark in her role, it was announced that she would leave her role that June, and she was succeeded as editor-in-chief by Edward Enninful. Since then, she has published a memoir I loved called Clothes And Other Things That Matter, which came out in 2021. Today we talk about what she’s up to these days (and it’s a lot!), what she’s reading, and, of course, about her time at Vogue.

 

By Alexandra Shulman:

Can We Still Be Friends?

Inside Vogue: My Diary of Vogue’s 100th Year

Clothes…And Other Things That Matter

 

Alexandra’s recommendations:

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

Slow Horses by Mick Herron

 

My “Leave You with Three” picks today:

Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

Untamed by Glennon Doyle + Together Rising