In this video of the interview, we get a look at the first cover from 1892 and the journey from Gibson Girl illustrations to Art Deco motifs; from the first cover in color from 1932 to the supermodels of the 70s and 80s and pulling in for a landing at today’s celebrity-rich covers. All while promoting the new Vogue digital archive, which costs nearly $1600 for a year. However, in 2012 Vogue subscribers will get limited access to the archive, thus finally providing incentive to renew that long-gestating subscription. [CBS]

“I remember getting quite a bit of criticism for my first Madonna cover,” Wintour said of the May 1989 issue. “And you know, ‘She’ll never sell.’ And it was a little bit risky. And it was up something extraordinary, like 40 percent on newsstands. So that was an eye-opener to all of us.”

This was just a year after Wintour had taken over at Vogue, and her word was not yet law. There was even some doubt surrounding her first cover from November 1988, featuring model Michaela Bercu in (a stunning Christian Lacroix top and) a pair of regular old blue jeans, of all things: “To me, it just said, ‘This is something new. This is something different.’ And I remember the printers called us up because they thought we’d made a mistake. Just wanting to check that that actually was the cover.”

Wintour  has always followed her instincts, for better or worse, and claims she doesn’t care much for market research. “Sometimes they’re successful and obviously sometimes they’re not. But you have to, I think, remain true to what you believe in.” Not a bad philosophy to live by. [WWD]

We love this line so much, we had to include more photos alongside the Swanned Sandal for your viewing pleasure. But don’t take our word for it – partygoers Leighton Meester and Hamish Bowles are fans too.

The granddaughter of one of the pillars of Italian couture, Elsa Schiaparelli, Marisa was “invented” by legendary Vogue editor Diana Vreeland at the age of sixteen, and became one of the most prolific models of the 60s and 70s. She graced every cover from Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar to Newsweek and Time and worked with the greatest photographers of the 20th century including Irving Penn, Richard Avedon and Helmut Newton. Then in the 70s, she embarked on a successful film career, along the way becoming, as Yves Saint Laurent dubbed her, “the girl of the seventies.” Featuring an introduction by aspiring popstar Hamish Bowles and a conversation with BFF for the last four decades or so, Diane von Furstenberg, Marisa Berenson: A Life in Pictures, gives insight into one of the most fabulous women to step in front of a camera lens.

What owning this book says about you: “I like my ‘It’ girls the way I like my drugs: pure, uncut and from the 70s.” Marisa Berenson’s rise to “It” status was pre-destined — glamour is literally in her blood — and she did it so effortlessly and so well that any girls aspiring to “It” today are but pale imitations. I’m looking at you, every socialite/DJ with a fashion fixation.

What will people say?!: “Someone loves them some artistic nudes and/or just loves a good boob shot.” True, Marisa Berenson had no problem flaunting what her mother, The Countess Maria Luisa Yvonne Radha de Wendt de Kerlor — a.k.a. Gogo — gave her, though her grandmother certainly did. After seeing a nipple-bearing photo by Arnaud de Rosnay, Schiap, according to Berenson, “was so furious that she practically threw me out of the house and disowned me.” But as DVF so astutely pointed out, “to show your tits was not a big deal at the time. To be young in the seventies was quite different.” Different i.e. awesome.

How this book will make your fashion brain grow: Berenson’s dynamic and daring photos offer a master class in brilliant fashion photography and moreover, in brilliant fashion photographers.

If you like this, you’ll love: Death in Venice (1971), Cabaret (1972), Barry Lyndon (1975) and I Am Love (2009) – Marisa’s work as an actress is almost as impressive as her modeling, particularly her first few films from the 70s. And 2009′s I Am Love proved that, even well into her 60s, she’s still an electrifying and stunning presence.

Photo: NYT

According to Style File: “The Traina sisters reportedly jumped when they heard the first crack, others found themselves flat on the floor after the benches, supporting the likes of Mario Testino, Catherine Deneuve, Carine Roitfeld, and Style.com’s Nicole Phelps, broke.”

Everyone stood their ground, however — note Vogue‘s Hamish Bowles, Anna Wintour and Grace Coddington dutifully in the front row — and the reaction was favorable with Anna Dello Russo remarking via Twitter that it was an “amazing” show and likening the experience to church.

Amen, fashion. [Style File]

The idea was that of madame editrix, Anna Wintour, who is secretly hilarious — in that incredibly dry and mocking British way:

I had to read the e-mail from the editor in chief several times to be quite sure. There, buried like a time bomb in a bouquet, was this chilling sentence: “I have signed you up to compete in The X Factor…You can sing,” says Anna…”This will be easy for you.” Her enthusiasm buoys me along, until a moment over dinner at the Metropolitan Opera…when she insouciantly announces that she is, in fact, completely tone deaf.  

Months of vocal training along with a word or two of advice from Liza Miinnelli :

“Just kinda talk through it and then sing the last bit real pretty, so that’s what they’ll remember,” she counseled, doing just that by way of example. “And remember to sing every song as if it’s the last time you are ever going to sing it!”*

And Bowles traveled to Newark, NJ — which was surprisingly the biggest indignity of the entire production — to take the stage.

Under the guise of Leo Mercuré (a character from a Noël Coward play, natch) — a  hairdresser who “once gave Anna Wintour a blow-out” —  Bowles crooned out a “hip-swinging” rendition of  Britney Spears‘ classic ode to lost innocence, “Oops!…I Did It Again” to the delight of the judges and a studio audience of 4,000 vultures.

Sadly, Bowles did not make it to the next stage of competition, but he was at least spared Cowell’s trademark brutality and Paula Abdul even said she wanted to hang out with him. And really, isn’t the prospect of doing karaoke with that glorious train-wreck to “Opposites Attract” reward enough? [Vogue]

*Which for Liza, it very well may be.

Color palette: Black, white and neutral growing to rich art deco purples and yellows witgh a spot of illustrated pastel florals.
Mood: Black tied man meets ancient Greek goddess.
Statement Pieces: She’s fused the tuxedo shirting with volumes of jersey that flow like water in betwixt the wovens. It is the piece I want to take home with me now.
Front Row Name Drops: Vogue European Editor-at-Large, Hamish Bowles among top buyers from Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf’s and more.
Gossip: Snubbed by the Naked Cowboy who made an appearance last year.
Runway Music: A fiddling melangé. 

11. University of Delaware Newark, DE

Campus Tour: The smallest state also has a small design program that is focused on quality garment making from every angle. The program follows a garment through its entire lifecycle, from the creative design and tailoring, to a focus on sustainably producing goods on both small and large scale in a socially and environmentally minded manner. An entirely student run fashion magazine, UDress, and fashion shows exist outside of class, working to show and pull fashion out of this college driven town.

Programs: Apparel Design, Merchandising, Sustainability

Student Body: 16,500

Tuition:  $27,000

Star Alumni: Well, me. And a fierce force that is the backbone of the garment industry.

Photos: Vogue.it

On hand to toast Wintour — who never met a Chanel bouclé tweed she didn’t drape over her frail back — were Karl Lagerfeld, Donatella Versace with bff Riccardo Tisci — fresh off his glorious fall 2011 haute couture collection for Givenchy – Lanvin‘s Alber Elbaz, Anna’s Italian counterpart Franca Sozzani, Mario Testino, LVMH head honcho Bernard Arnault, YSL‘s Stefano Pilati, Burberry‘s Christopher Bailey,  Tommy Hilfiger, professional dandy and Vogue‘s editor-at-large Hamish Bowles and the Rhoda to Anna’s Mary, Grace Coddington.

According to the Kaiser, “We had this very nice cocktail, where Anna made a very funny speech.” I have a hard time believing at least one of those facts. [WWD]

Click through for more picture from Vogue Italia that were apparently taken by a drunk intern with an iPhone.

The exhibit opens today June 7th at famed British jeweler Stephen Webster in Beverly Hills.  Proceeds from “In Case of Fashion Emergency Break Glass,” in addition to 10% of jewelry sales for the month of June, will be donated to the Prince’s Trust.

The Prince’s Trust is a cause especially close to Thomas’s heart. Having left his native Glouchester where he was studying as a plumber’s apprentice, Thomas found himself in London at age nineteen with only 30 pounds to his name. There he became immersed in the nightlife scene in hopes of meeting his idol, Boy George. He soon realized, however, he couldn’t get by with just being fabulous; he actually had to do something. The life of a fashion editor appealed to him so at 22 he applied for a grant from the Prince’s Trust.

With the money he won, David put together a portfolio and wrote over 100 stylists, hoping to work for free as an assistant. He supported himself with a job handing out roses and perfume in a bathroom of a club at night and washing dishes at a café on the weekends. He was eventually hired by Isabella Blow and Judy Blaine; the latter, as fate would have it, was Boy George’s stylist. After scoring a lucky break styling Lisa Stansfield‘s video for “All Around the World,” Thomas took over working with Boy George from Blaine, who had become too busy with another client, Neneh Cherry.

By 24, David Thomas had become the fashion editor at Esquire, the youngest editor in the world at that time. He befriended Hamish Bowles, who was working at Harper’s & Queen in the office next door. Bowles took Thomas under his refined wing and taught him the ins and outs of proper decorum. Thomas also met a young Philip Treacy from whom he commissioned a hat for Boy George, thus helping launch his impressive career as a milliner.

David Thomas plans to document his 23-plus years in fashion with a book he’s currently working on, but for “In Case of Fashion Emergency,” he didn’t want to delve too deep into the past. Rather, he wanted to focus on the last six months to make the exhibit more relevant. He will be featuring looks he styled for Britney Spears, Chris Brown, Matthew McConaughey, Avril Lavigne, Chris Hemsworth, John Legend and of course Puff Daddy, by whom the exhibit’s name is more or less inspired.

While having dinner one Saturday night, Puff called him, desperately in need of an outfit for dinner with Jay Z — an age-old dilemma. David rushed home, but impeded by traffic, got there an hour later, at which point Puff had already solved the problem. He later joked with friends that he should always have a back-up outfit, encased in a glass box like a fire extinguisher, and  in case of fashion emergencies, he would simply break the glass.

If you’re in Beverly Hills tonight or at all during the month of June — the length of the exhibit —  make sure to drop by Stephen Webster so you too can be prepared for your own fashion emergencies. Although, I doubt Puff Daddy will be calling you anytime soon, as David Thomas would tell you, it’s best to be prepared.

Photo: NY Times

Vogue‘s Editor-at-Large revealed the big news during a lecture on Cristóbal Balenciaga last week at the Phoenix Art Museum:

“I’m about to start working on a more autobiographical book about my adventures in fashion and at Vogue.”

A graduate of Central Saint Martins, Bowles served as Fashion Editor and eventually Style Director for London’s Harper’s & Queen — which by the way is the gayest ( i.e. most amazing) sounding magazine ever — until 1992 when he became Style Editor at Vogue.

In addition to writing books on the likes of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Yves Saint Laurent and Carolina Herrera, Bowles is an avid collector of historically significant fashions and haute couture.

When I went to the Balenciaga: Spanish Master exhibit at the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute, I was surprised — and painfully jealous — at how many of the clothes were lent by Hamish Bowles, who also served as the curator.

This autobiography is obviously topping my Can’t Effing Wait for It list, if only to learn how I, too, can start collecting historically significant fashions and haute couture. I’ve wanted to have the world’s largest archive of drop-crotch pants, bodysuits and tranny heels since I was a little girlish boy.

Referring to her decision to snatch up Blow’s wardrobe as “probably the maddest…ever,” she explains that she did so not out of label lust but out of a desire to preserve Isabella Blow’s unique aesthetic:

“I thought what’s going to happen is [the pieces are] going to be lost. She had an incredible eye and she truly loved her pieces, they’re like a diary. I didn’t want to buy them and wear them, I wanted to buy them and keep them because I think it’s very interesting for students and people who are interested in fashion to see.”

Blow had introduced McQueen to Guinness while he was working for Givenchy, just as she had introduced him to Hamish Bowles years before. And though Daphne initially didn’t want to meet him, they became fast friends and as the lone survivor she certainly feels an obligation to keep both McQueen’s and Blow’s legacies alive:

“[The exhibition is] a very bittersweet thing, because you want to celebrate your friends but then it’s like where are they and why aren’t they here?” [The Cut]

“I was terrified,” Bowles tells New York Mag, “There were very few teeth, I remember, and quite a significant beer belly. [The teeth] bespoke street fights.”

I never thought it would take much to terrify the diminutive Bowles, who went to meet McQueen at the behest of the late Isabella Blow while he was still a student at Central Saint Martins:

“So I went to south, south, south London, it took hours to get there, and it was his auntie’s welfare apartment. And he had some mannequins in the front room, and this really terrifying creature greeted me, and he was inarticulate and abrasive and just absolutely brilliant. You could just see there was just a raw talent. And you could tell he was frustrated because he felt that he wasn’t ready to be showing me things.”

When Harried Met Dandy. [The Cut]

*Andre Leon Talley wins the award for best purple tent. As always, his volumes are amazing.

Let’s take a look at the Best Dressed of the night. This category has quite a bit of people, as it should, for fashion’s biggest event. These were the As and high Bs, the working girls.

Shalom Harlow is my pick for BEST DRESSED in Marchesa. This is what the Met Ball is all about – she looks breathtaking in that gown.

I almost fell over when I saw Christina Ricci in Zac Posen. She never ages a day and looks super sexy in this sheer number.

I found Mary-Kate’s dress underwhelming, but Ashley Olsen looks ravishing in vintage Dior Haute Couture. The whole look is perfect.

Elle Fanning looks like a little couture doll in Valentino. She is so outshining her sister, it’s not even fair.

Rihanna has been looking haggard lately, so I was pleasantly surprised at how elegant she was in this striking Stella McCartney gown.

Iman, also in Stella McCartney, turned it out in a metallic gold jumpsuit. A little draggy, a lot amazing.

Karolina Kurkova in a spring 2011 Jean Paul Gaultier lace legging-dress creation. If the models can’t do it, who can?

I love this Prabal Gurung gown and funky jewelry on Ciara. White could be difficult to pull off at the ball, but she did it right.

Even though Crystal Renn is too skinny for my taste, she is an absolute vision in Alexander McQueen. I need my hair to look like this.

After getting ready in a Barneys window yesterday, Daphne Guiness showed up in McQueen. Perfect, amazing, stuns.

I loved Ginnifer Goodwin‘s look from the moment  I saw it. Then I realized it was custom Topshop. Damn she makes it look good.

Naomi Campbell looks like the queen she is in custom McQueen. She wears the sedatives well too.

Hamish Bowles looks like a true gentleman in custom McQueen. Love it from head to toe.

I always wait with baited breath to see what Blake Lively is wearing. She obviously did not disappoint in a Chanel toga.

New York’s best couple showed up looking better than ever. Beyonce is working that Emilio Pucci gown like whoa.

Queen Bitch Anna Wintour gave her best smile to the camera and looks like a shiny grandiose statue in Chanel.

On to the Most Boring of the night. On any other occasion, these folks would have looked great (probably). Unfortunately, this also means they’re the Cs of the Met Ball.

I’m sleeping. Zoe Saldana is usually among the best dressed. Why did she choose this boring Calvin Klein for the biggest fashion night of the year?

Leighton Meester is amazing, but she has trouble getting it right. Different shoes and hair would have done this Louis Vuitton dress more justice.

I love this Michael Kors dress on Emma Roberts, but she has the body to wear something more over the top on a night like this.

Madonna, the Material Girl herself, definitely could have done better than this Stella McCartney dress. Pretty, but boring.

I’m actually quite obsessed with this Miu Miu dress Michelle Williams is wearing. But I would wear this to a nice dinner, not a gala.

And now ladies and gentleman, the Worst Dressed of the night. These are the Ds and Fs of the Met Ball, the creme de la creme of mistakes.

ARGH! Christina Hendricks used to dress so well! This Carolina Herrera gown is an unflattering fit and color on her.

Oh dear. Hate to say it Alicia Keys, but it looks like you’re wearing a giant turd instead of Givenchy. Brown jacket AND dress is NOT fly.

Jennifer Lopez looks like a halfway plucked bloody chicken. Matchy-matchy lipstick, bag and Gucci is a no go.

I thought Chloe Sevigny would make McQueen look good, but I was wrong. The hair is awful and the dress fits like she grabbed it off some rack.

Sorry to say it Kate Hudson, but this Stella McCartney is not a cute pregnant lady dress. And whatever is on your head isn’t working either.

Nooooo! In the rush of preparing for the gala, Lucy Liu forgot to get a wax! Oh wait, that’s just her looking blech in Vionnet.

I hope everyone enjoying looking at the red carpet photos from the 2011 Met Gala as much as I. Who was your best and worst dressed of the night?

- Grace Coddington‘s 70th birthday was a who’s who of fashion royalty, with a guest list including Anna Wintour, Marc Jacobs, Naomi Campbell, Oscar de la Renta, Calvin Klein, Annie Leibovitz,  Helmut Lang, André Leon Talley, Liya Kebede, Karen Elson, Stefano Pilati, Hamish Bowles, Karlie Kloss, Nicolas Ghesquière, Bruce Weber, Patrick Demarchelier, Vera Wang, Edward Enninful, Riccardo Tisci, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez from Proenza Schouler and Laura and Kate Mulleavy from Rodarte. Twas clearly a magical night, as evidenced by this photo of Anna having what appears to be…a good time:

There but for the Grace of Coddington go I. [Styleite]

- Another image has “leaked” from Beyoncé‘s video shoot — either B has awful security or we’re just the pawns in her little chess game of pop supremacy…either way I couldn’t care less because she’s wearing Alexander McQueen. [Red Carpet Fashion Awards]

1. Anna Dello Russo, Editor-at-Large, Vogue Nippon

Style: “Balls to the Couture Wall”

2. Shala Monroque, Editor-at-Large, Pop

Style: “Hip Gal About Town”

3. Anna Wintour, Editor-in-Chief, Vogue

Style: “Baddest Bitch in the Game”

4. André Leon Talley, Contributing Editor, Vogue

Style: “Great-cape Expectations”

5. Carine Roitfeld, former Editor-in-Chief, Vogue Paris

Style: “Parisian Perfection”

6. Giovanna Battaglia, Fashion Editor, L’Uomo Vogue

Style: “City Sleeker”

7. Hamish Bowles, Editor-at-Large, Vogue

Style: “Dandy Does It”

8. Lauren Santo Domingo, Contributing Editor, Vogue

Style: “New Yorker State of Mind”

9. Glenda Bailey, Editor-in-Chief, Harper’s Bazaar

Style: “Tea Time with the Tudors”

10. Stefano Tonchi, Editor-in-Chief, W

Style: “Gentleman’s Agreement”

- Olsenboye, Mary Kate and Ashley’s lower-end retail line, will be launching a webisode series today starring five West Coast fashion bloggers. West Coast and fashion seem oxymoronic to me, but you can check out the first webisode today at 10 am on teenvogue.com. [WWD]

- Vogue‘s Editor-at-Large, Hamish Bowles went one on one with Amar’e Stoudemire of the NY Knicks, and as you’d expect, Hamish totally schooled Amar’e. I mean, Hamish is dunkin’ on him like donuts — I think his fashionable headband might have been the deciding factor. [Refinery29]

Conceived by the Chairman of the Institute’s Board of Directors, Oscar de la Renta and curated by Vogue‘s own Hamish Bowles, Balenciaga: Spanish Master is the the first collection “to consider the impact of Spain’s culture, history and art” on the career and artistry of Cristóbal Balenciaga (1895-1972).

Portrait of the artist as a young fox

Balenciaga forever changed the way women dressed and introduced dramatically different silhouettes into a woman’s sartorial lexicon. Spanish Master showcases some of the designer’s brilliant, beautiful and very often groundbreaking work in millinery, evening gowns, cocktail dresses and daywear, particularly highlighting his expert construction and tailoring.

Photo: GDK is the new black.

Featuring over 70 pieces from the Balenciaga archives, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, The Hispanic Society of America, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of the City of New York, and the Texas Fashion Collection, the collection also benefited from loans from the private collections of Sandy Schreier and Bowles himself.

Photo: Sandi in the City

The exhibit also ”considers the influences on [Balenciaga's] designs of the country’s great artists, from Zurbarán and Goya to Picasso, Sorolla and Miró, and of Spain’s religious dress and ceremony, its royal history, its rich regional costume, its dance traditions, and the power and splendor of the bullfight. “

Photo: GDK is the new black.

I was in raptures pouring over Spanish Master‘s two floors and was especially surprised by Balenciaga’s continued experimentation and ingenuity well into old age and until his retirement in 1968. One could easily see the rich history from which Nicolas Ghesquière regularly culls and reinterprets through the house’s current collections.

Photos: Blend/Koko Royale

Balenciaga: Spanish Master is an experience that any lover of fashion or art or Spanish history should not miss. The exhibition will be on display at the Queen Sofía Spanish Institute through February 19th and is $15 for adults and $10 for students, seniors, and Institute members.

Queen Sofía Spanish Institute  - 684 Park Ave

Like Cristobal Balenciaga, artist Francesco Vezzoli was inspired by religion for his latest exhibition Sacrilegio. He has reimagined 15th- and 16th-century Madonna and Child paintings by Giovanni Bellini, Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli utilizing 80s/90s supermodels including Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Christie Brinkley, Tatjana Patitz, Claudia Schiffer, Stephanie Seymour and Kim Alexis.

Kim Alexis

The exhibit purports to examine “the societal worship of figures from the fashion and celebrity industries” by combining supermodels with historical religious icons.

Cindy Crawford

Vezzoli adorned each painting with “makeup, tattoos and large oblong tears rendered in needlepoint” and the gallery itself has been transformed into a Renaissance chapel. Some of the works also feature an FV with “a needle and thread forming part of the initials.”

Christie Brinkley

The exhibit was interesting and wholly entertaining — I mean, Christie Brinkley crying a giant needlepoint Liza Minnelli tear! I’m surprised I didn’t collapse from the amount of awesome being thrown my way.

Whether you subscribe to the artist’s idea of using these supers to “reflect a reality that has a huge power over our lives” or are just tickled by Naomi Campbell as a holy figure, Sacrilegio is definitely worth seeing. Sacrilegio will be on display at the Gagosian through March 12.

Gagosian Gallery - 522 W 21st St

We asked the legendary designer and the Vogue editor a couple questions about this gorgeous exhibit, and here’s what they had to say…

Mr. Bowles, you’re known to have an extensive personal collection of couture. Are there any pieces from your personal archives?

Yes actually.  A couple of the boleros and black gowns are mine.  You’ll have to read the information on the displays to find out which were mine.

Mr. de la Renta, everyone’s been buzzing today about Kate Middleton and Prince William’s engagement. Since you’re such an established couture designer, would you be interested in dressing Kate Middleton?

I think Ms. Middleton will be choosing an English designer for her wedding.

Here’s a preview of looks from the Balenciaga Exhibit:

Fashion’s Night Out will also be the subject of a one-hour-long CBS documentary, which will air on September 14.

LINK LOVE:Fashion's Night Out & Gossip Girl To Meet On TV

Thanks for the photo Fashionologie!