Why Rosalía’s Spring Cover Marks A New Era for Vogue

0:00Hi, I'm Arden Fanning Andrews, Vogue's beauty editor at large. My husband and I talk a lot of eBay strategy together because it is something that we have bonded over since the beginning of our relationship. We've known each other for 20 years and we've been using eBay for even longer than that, both of us. He's very proud of his five-star review, which I have the same. We're pretty popular. We have a really good reputation on eBay.

0:28This is The Run Through. I'm Chloe Mel. And I'm Chomanadi. And this is an extra special episode because, drop roll please, we are talking all about Chloe's first issue as Vogue's head of editorial content, which I'm so excited to see. I haven't seen it yet. I know, but this is fun for me too because I remember when we did this for your first September issue and it felt like such a fun behind the scenes fly on the wall. It is, isn't it? It's exciting. It must be so nice to, like, have it finally getting it out to the world. It's such a labor of love. It was a labor of a lot of things. Blood, sweat, and tears in every way.

1:12Exactly. And it's all worth it. All right. This is Rosalia Lightspeed. Oh, my God. She looks incredible. She really looks amazing. Oh, my God. And you got her in the couture? We got the Dior couture. She's wearing Dior couture. Nice one. Before it was on the runway. It's a big deal. It looks so good on her. So how did you decide on Rosalia? Tell me about why she was your choice. Well, I have to say it's rare that one album really universally unites everyone in the Vogue Slack channels. And our entire office has been obsessed with Lux. Obviously, Rosalia is not new. She was on the cover of Vogue five years ago, but this feels like a new moment in her global stardom.

2:01I see that Carlos was a fashion editor on this. He did such an amazing job. My name is Carlos Nazario. I am Vogue's new contributing style director. Carlos Nazario, who is a very exciting new Vogue contributor, did this shoot with Alistair McClellan. And Carlos really was one of the first people. He texted me, I think, the day Lux came out and said, we must do Rosalia. And it really sort of crystallized that for all of us in terms of how important it would be to make her the first cover. For me personally, this is my first issue back at Vogue. And obviously Rosalia has been on the cover of Vogue before, also styled by me.

2:44He actually styled our first Rosalia cover five years ago. So that felt like a real full circle moment. I met Rose several years back. We have a lot of friends in common. And then the first time that we worked together was actually for a music video that shall not be named and was not released. But it was sick. We sort of really fell in love with each other and bonded over that experience. And then I worked with her a few times on red carpet things. I've styled her for several editorials at this point. So, you know, we have a really solid and strong working and personal relationship. Yeah, so he, to me, it was a natural fit to style this cover.

3:30And he has also just such an incredible personal story about how he got to Vogue. Fashion's all I've ever done. In fact, my very first internship was at Condé Nast when I was 18 years old. I grew up in New York obsessed with Vogue and obsessed with the world within the pages, but also the characters that made the magazine. So the reality is that my 12-year-old self is looking at me now extremely impressed and really thrilled. How did you guys score that Dior? Because everybody was talking about that couture collection. You guys got it from up under from Jonathan Anderson while he was creating the collection?

4:13What? It was crazy. This was the fruits of a London breakfast between Anna and Jonathan. And when he was just finishing his couture collection and Anna got really excited and sent me and Virginia and Raul pictures of a few of the dresses. And we were so excited to be able to feature this. So it went from Paris to Malibu and back again. And we did not end up getting to use the cyclamen, pink cyclamen headpiece, because Rosalia said absolutely not. But that we can save for the runway.

4:54But of course, getting a major look like this does not come without its challenges. Shipping is what's really killing us. It'll be on track and then all of a sudden it's stuck in Memphis. Memphis is right now my biggest enemy because all of our packages get stuck there. And I'm like, do I need to fly there and get it out of UPS myself? That's Naomi Eliza, Vogue's fashion market director. Naomi and Virginia Smith, Vogue's global head of fashion network, worked tirelessly on getting the looks for this issue. There were hundreds of outfits that came in and that they pulled and that we photographed all right before the holidays.

5:36and during the time when every brand was shooting their campaign. So it was a real Rubik's Cube to get this issue in lock. So, Chloe, so tell me about the first run-through. Well, it's weird because we all talk about a run-through where, you know, everyone, the racks of clothes get rolled into Anna's office. And we obviously did not, are not doing that these days. But it is a helpful moment to level set with the stylist and the fashion team, Virginia and Naomi, and really figure out what are we all thinking? Are we on the same page? What are the shoots that we're mapping out? And I found that that was really helpful.

6:19It can also be good to sort of check different people's feelings on which way a shoot should be going. You know, Jordan Bickham styled our Amanda Seyfried digital cover, which is featured in the spring issue. And when we met for the run through the day before the shoot, Jordan and I were leaning more romantic. Virginia was leaning more contemporary. And it was helpful to go through each of those looks during the run through and be able to find a middle ground that made sense for all of us. And I love this picture of her on a horse. Or is it a donkey horse? It's a mule. Thank you for asking. It's a mule named Twinkie.

6:57And he is the mascot of the issue. There's a lot of... There's always an animal. It has to be an animal. That's right. There are seven dogs and one mule in this issue. Oh, my God. Carlos said he was, like, screaming in Starbucks, We must have the donkey! Carlos and Raul apparently exchanged 200 texts about which donkey to cast for the shoot. I'm so glad we landed on Twinkie. And, you know, it really, it's the little things that become big things. And I think it was really worth it.

7:37Okay, so we're going to take a short break. And when we're back, we'll hear all about the shoot.

7:50Whenever I'm looking for things with eBay Authenticity Guarantee, it often ends up being sneakers. I'm not necessarily a sneakerhead, but there are specific sneakers that I may have like fallen in love with and have been discontinued. And it's really nice to find them on eBay. And so it'll be just like a pair of platform Converse loafers. It will be a pair of Vans white slippers with like a very specific low toe. And so it's great with eBay to just be like, this is a real thing. It's in the size that you want. It's in the style that you want. And it's real. And we're back. So Chloe, tell me all about the shoot.

8:26Chumma, we are so excited to work with Alistair McClellan. And as I mentioned before, the shoot was in Malibu. We shot in the most incredible house. It was right on the water. We had a private beach. And we had the most incredible blue sky all day. Like, sun was shining. That's Sergio Kletnoy, Vogue's global entertainment director. She came in early in the morning. she was so excited to finally have another American Vogue moment. She went straight into fitting. We discussed glam. And we were literally on the beach within two hours. Sergio went to the shoot, as did Carlos, obviously. And while the beach was a beautiful backdrop, it definitely provided some challenges.

9:09Everyone thinks that shooting on the beach is really fun, but shooting on the beach is not fun at all. You're running back and forth. Everyone's dirty and sandy. It's impossible to manage the elements. So as a shoot was happening, did you get updates for it throughout? You know, I try not to heckle people during a shoot. I feel like they need to get their work done. I did get a couple of updates from Sergio that the shoot was going amazing and that she was staying for more shots and that everyone was having such a great time. So I felt assuaged. And then the next morning I did check in with Carlos and he said it went fantastic.

9:47And so I was eager to see the photos. Waited with bated breath. They look so good. And I love that you got her at that beautiful golden hour. She looks incredible. So my favorite shots are at sunset and it really feels special and romantic. I'm watching a lot of The Little Mermaid at home right now, the Disney animated version. and there is, you know, the magic moment of Ariel coming out of the ocean sort of at sunset. And it felt a bit like that with Rosalia. Okay, so now after the shoot happened, you had to select the cover. Tell me how you landed on the cover. I mean, I guess you knew it had to be the Dior couture.

10:30That was really no, no brainer. Yes, I think we getting that Dior was a Herculean effort and we were very excited to have it. So we knew we wanted that, and we looked at a variety of options of her in that look. She just looked so powerful and like a goddess in this one that it felt like a natural choice. It's gorgeous. I feel like you really made the best choice. Now, I have to say, as soon as we found out Rosalia was available and we started to lock in Carlos and Alistair, Deputy editor Taylor Antrim. Taylor and I were like, who should write this? Abby Aguirre seems like a natural fit. I feel like I got a very strong sense of who Rosalia is from her piece, and she didn't have a ton of time with her.

11:18There's just so much more that goes into being a global superstar like Rosalia these days. Her time really is, like, incredibly valuable and spoken for. In fact, we were able to get her while she was in L.A. filming the third season of Euphoria. You know, she had fleeting pockets of time around that shoot. And the sort of storylines and all the details about season three of Euphoria were like hugely confidential. I was impressed with what you managed to get out of her. Oh, I can't wait to read it.

12:00We are going to take a short break. We'll be back in a moment.

12:14Sometimes people ask me which search terms I use whenever I'm on eBay. So I search a lot of deadstock. That's a term that I throw in there a lot. Dead stock means that no one's ever worn it before, but it is like an archival piece or it's a vintage piece. And so that's a great thing to find on eBay. There's a ton of dead stock vintage. And it's just kind of like comforting to know that like you're the first person taking this like piece on its maiden voyage, even if it's 50 years old. eBay offers this departure from the everyday that ends up feeling totally you.

12:50Everybody come get some cake. So, you know, a little celebration for Chinese New Year, maybe, slash everyone's amazing. At every issue, Vogue's deputy editor, Taylor Antrim, organizes a meeting for the whole staff to get a preview of the issue. Let's show you guys the spring issue. So, this is our first issue of the year. Which I love because it really feels like sharing this thing that we've all been working on. And a lot of the times, different people on different parts of the team have been working on select segments of it. And then to see it all come together, it feels like the unveiling of a big project that finally we see the whole of.

13:32But it is called Spring, and it's exciting. It's Chloe's first—this is too much.

13:44Everyone was so excited about the Rosalia cover. it just felt like this big moment of joy because we all love her so much. Sam Sussman, our global director of social media, even brought multiple cakes to the meeting that happened to be gifts from Instagram. So that was exciting.

14:04As you should, I hope you're going to celebrate again because this is a big moment. Just baked goods for the next week. Yeah, it's like not a one and done celebration. This is a big deal. Thank you, Choma. and we also have such we have some really fabulous stories inside the issue that everyone worked really hard on and that the team was very excited to get into and see a rollout of so tell me what would you say is the chloe marl era of vogue how are you thinking about this new moment um i mean it's it's it's pretty exciting it does feel like an exciting moment but i also as anna keeps reminding me, not everything is print, and we shouldn't be too focused on this.

14:47We have a lot of things going all the time. We publish 23 stories the night of the Grammys. We're firing on all cylinders. So print feels like one part of the story, but it definitely is something that feels the most emotional and connected to the core of the brand. So I am really excited for this to be out in the world. And I'm also really excited. It's the first issue that will have our thicker paper stock. And so I do hope that that really affects the way this feels like a collector's item. Well, I feel like you're doing such a fantastic job. And this is just another amazing milestone. I mean, think about all the digital covers that you've had.

15:25They've been absolutely fab and all of the digital projects you've worked on. So this is just the icing on the cake. Thank you, Choma. So welcome. As you probably have heard in this episode, it is just such a Herculean effort to get something like this out the door. And because this is a bigger issue, since we are decreasing our cadence of print issues, this just was an even more gigantic undertaking. And I have just been so in awe of everyone on the Vogue team who made this happen and just put in such tireless efforts into getting this over the line. So I am so, so grateful.

16:19And that's it for the show today.

16:31The Run-Through with Vogue is produced by Chelsea Daniel, Alex DePalma, and Catherine Millsop. It's engineered by Pran Bandy and James Yost. It is mixed by Mike Kutchman.

16:48My first job in New York City was as a trend forecaster. I do trend forecasting still. And eBay is a part of that because I'll search for things that I'm seeing around. And it will end up directing me in places that I could have never anticipated. And one of the trends that I'm seeing these days is crafting things that are made by hand. And so playing with clothes and accessories to create something kind of distinctive for your wardrobe is a great way of doing it. And getting supplies off of eBay is my favorite thing for it. I'll get like maybe a pair of slippers that I'm wearing right now and then cut them in a specific way and then they're totally my own.

17:25And I feel like it's a great resource to create your own trends because then you can both feel like you're bringing something back to life. You're already like pulling it out of the eBay archives. And then you're also adjusting it so that it really expresses your own style, which is something that, you know, people really want right now whenever they are feeling like so algorithmic about the style that's being pushed to them. That doesn't have to be perfect. Things can have rough edges and that sometimes makes them feel more special. From PRX.