Editor of Vogue credits Nottingham with producing fashion talent

Video: Alexandra Shulman on choosing her favourite Vogue cover

The editor of British Vogue credited Nottingham as a place for producing fashion talent on her first visit to the city.

Alexandra Shulman, who is leaving the magazine this summer after 25 years, spoke about Nottingham’s lace-making history and how the city’s fashion business start-ups are leading the way in the industry.

She met students at Nottingham Trent University’s Newton Building on Wednesday (April 26) and discussed her work as a journalist, her experience leading Vogue, and what the future has in store for the magazine.

“Nottingham has a great general textile history and I know that fashion is quite ingrained in the whole culture of Nottingham – as is theatre as well,” she said.

“There is a lot of talent coming out of the universities here – and I think, like with London, it is a lot easier for people to get together and start [fashion businesses] growing – so that’s an element.”

Vogue-editor-Alexandra-Shulman
Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman, left, met journalism students at Nottingham Trent University.

After taking the helm of Vogue in 1992, Shulman is the longest-serving and most successful editor in British Vogue history.

In 2005 she was awarded an OBE for services to the magazine industry, followed by an honorary Master of Arts degree from the University of Creative Arts (UCA) in 2010, acknowledging her outstanding contribution to the magazine industry.

She has increased circulation of the magazine to 200,000, and overseen some of its most famous covers – including the June 2016 issue featuring the Duchess of Cambridge – although she says she struggles to pick a favourite.

“Twenty five years of covers is an awful lot of covers to have, so I don’t have a favourite,” she added.

“I tend to like quite unusual ones. I loved the one we did for the millennium, which was just a plain silver cover which reflected the reader in it – that’s probably my favourite cover.”

Alexandra Shulman gave a lecture at Nottingham Trent University’s Newton building on Wednesday (April 25).

In August the role of editor will be taken over by former creative director of W Magazine, Edward Enninful, who will be the magazine’s first male editor.

She said: “I very much doubt that being a man is going to make a huge difference to the [direction of the] magazine.

“I think that times are changing and every editor comes in and brings a different point of view.

“I’m sure Edward will make changes – and probably quite dramatic ones – and I’m excited to see them.”

In the past, the 59-year-old has spoken out about sizing in the fashion industry, writing an open letter to designers including Karl Lagerfeld and Donatella Versace in 2009, saying their ‘minuscule’ sample sizes were forcing magazines to use unhealthily thin models.

The magazine also famously went ‘model-free’ for one issue in November 2016, and only featured clothes worn by ‘real people’.

She added: “I do think things are changing in every way in terms of body image and racial diversity, and general approach to standards of beauty – but it’s quite slow still.”