Autumn is my favorite time of the year. I love everything about it from the cool change in weather to all my favorite holidays that it leads up to -- you know the usual -- Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas and of course the start of college football and countless other fall festivities and delights. Not to mention the clothes and the oh-so-important September issues begin to appear on newsstands. This year Vogue is celebrating the magazine's legendary 120 year anniversary! To properly celebrate such an important milestone, the magazine churned out a record breaking 916 page issue topping that famous 2007 September Issue (the focus of R.J. Cutler's documentary) of 840 pages. In addition to producing the largest September Issue in the magazine's history, Vogue also released a new book to go along with its120th anniversary called Vogue: The Editor's Eye. The book focuses on the work of eight of the magazine's legendary fashion editors and of course it includes Vogue's creative director and my favorite fashion editorial stylist, Grace Coddington. There was actually an excerpt of the book included in the September 2012 issue of the magazine with Lady Gaga (wearing a custom made Marc Jacobs dress) on the cover, which was supposed to pay homage to the very first issue of Vogue from December 17, 1892.
This September Issue is not only a celebratory one, but it also gives us the best example of miss Coddington's great work. Not only did she style Lady Gaga for the cover and cover story, Dream Girl, (and according to Anna Wintour's Editor's Note there were two dresses that were being considered for the cover: one that Grace particularly liked and one that Gaga preferred more, but Anna didn't reveal which dress made the cover! Tease!) this issue also showcases Grace's great imagination and romanticism in her work and justifies time in time again why she is the greatest stylist that has ever lived. The editorial titled Custom of the Country features two of Grace's signature elements -- Natalia Vodianova and Annie Leibovitz: my favorite combination of all time. Along with the August 2012 spread, The Great Escape (photographed by Peter Lindbergh), both spreads have a very dreamy, whimsical, and cinematic feel to it. A lot of the clothes that Vodianova wears in that editorial were custom made by a lot of designers -- from Nina Ricci, Ralph Lauren, Rochas, Nicolas Ghesquiere for Balenciaga, to Oscar de la Renta -- just for Vogue! I guess that's one of the many perks of being Grace Coddington and a publication like Vogue; designers don't hesitate to create something that will be exclusively featured in the magazine and those particular editorial shoots always become so memorable and one of my favorites as well.
In terms of what's new and the latest fashion for fall, Vogue has launched a new feature titled What to Wear Where in its September and October issues which illustrates Grace's talent of interpreting the Fall 2012 runway fashions to the glossies of the magazine in September's Her Brilliant Career and October's Cover Me. The September feature has the model Karlie Kloss donning a lot of bright and colorful wigs with the season's best tailored looks for the office, peplums, structured leather bags, and those show stopping Prada platform heels. The October story features Kloss again alongside model Daria Strokuos where Grace, via the words of Anna Wintour, "gave practical consideration to how to wear all of the sculpted and volumized coats that are around" paired along with those Celine heels that are deemed to be the new heel shape (spectator wedge with a notch nipped out under the arch as translated by Vogue.)
The October cover girl Kiera Knightley was also styled by miss Coddington in Poise and Passion where Kiera, who is going to star as Tolstoy's Anna Karenina in theaters this September, wears the haute couture pieces from the July couture runway shows. From the white finale look of Chanel to Raf Simons debut collection for Christian Dior, Kiera looked positively regal. And speaking of couture, in the feature One Enchanted Evening, Dolce and Gabbana presents its first couture collection in a confection of bell shaped skirts on the silk organza dresses and hand painted floral designs. It's considered couture because there is nothing ready-to-wear about these dresses, some even took three months to create! This is a collection that the duo has been dreaming of, with Domenico Dolce saying that "It's not just a dress. It's a dream -- a Dolce dream."
And speaking of dreams, if there is one thing that I learn each month from Grace's work, it's that you shouldn't stop dreaming. I'm not talking about the kind that happens when you sleep. I'm talking more about a conscious dream and colorful fantasies. I don't know about you, but there is something about this season that never fails to inspire me to dream year after year. Something about the cool autumn air makes everything around seem so romantic and promising (or maybe that's the impending Holiday season.) Nonetheless, savor the pumpkin flavor lattes, break out the wool outwear, and don't forget to dream this fall.
Love, KB
August 2012
The Great Escape
The Great Escape
Tatjana Patitz has never relished the limelight. Now, at 46, the supermodel has found paradise -- 20 acres of quiet California ranch land to share with assorted animals and her son, Jonah.
Photographed by Peter Lindbergh
One Enchanted Evening
Dolce & Gabbana presents its first couture collection in heady, extravagant fashion on the island of Sicily.
Photographed by Peter Lindbergh
September 2012
Dream Girl
Whether touring the globe with a groundbreaking extravaganza or launching an
out-of-this-world fragrance, Lady Gaga is meeting the future on her own wildly inventive terms.
Photographed by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott
The Custom of the Country
Escaping the drawing rooms of old New York, Edith Wharton created an artistic arcadia in the Berkshires, where intrigues both literary and romantic -- unfolded in dramatic fashion.
Photographed by Annie Leibovitz
One Enchanted Evening
Dolce & Gabbana presents its first couture collection in heady, extravagant fashion on the island of Sicily.
Photographed by Peter Lindbergh
Her Brilliant Career
It's a 24/7 world we live in -- and the modern woman has an office wardrobe as hard as she does.
Photographed by David Sims
October 2012
Poise and Passion
A dramatic heroine in haute couture and in costume as Anna Karenina, Keira Knightley talks about her upcoming marriage -- and playing the role of a lifetime.
Photographed by Mario Testino
Cover Me
From work to play, Fall's voluminous coats have got your back.
Photographed by Craig McDean
