(Erdem dress, Vanessa Bruno sunglasses, Prada shoes)
ELLE Collections a work in progress: from moodboard to still-life pictures these are some of the things youll see in the new issue out on 18 July
When Karl Lagerfeld sends you a handwritten note telling you very specifically why he likes your magazine, then you know youve created something very special. Three years ago such a note was delivered to my hotel room in Paris during the new-season shows. Hed written how much he liked ELLE Collections, our biannual runway bible, and how original he thought it was.
Its the only fashion magazine of its kind in the UK and the one where we have creative license to please all of you who love fashion passionately from the bottom of your Givenchy heels to the tip of your Chanel lipstick.
Right now were in the middle of putting the next issue together. If you wonder how we do this I thought Id give you a quick run down on the process of bringing such a 188-page magazine to life:
1. The fashion team get together with Collections editor Avril Mair and creative director Marissa Bourke to work on a list of ideas to present to the Editor in Chief (thats me). We do this immediately after the shows while its all fresh in our minds, so our first ELLE Collections meeting was back in March.
2. Moodboards, moodboards, moodboards. We put together a visual feel of the magazine and look through hundreds of pictures, talking through the finer details of the shows in fine detail and creating huge lists of subjects we want to cover and people we want to interview before having two or three further meetings to distil the content into a flatplan.
3. As the layouts come together, the copy comes in and we all read and re-read. Were mindful of using a language you understand and making this super-glamorous world of fashion super-accessible to you as a reader. And we like to make it funny this year were looking for an Afghan hound for a shoot in ELLE Collections. Weve featured patterns to make your own YSL wimple and games such as Fashionopoly in the past. The small team works alongside the ELLE team as we put the issue together. The biggest job on this magazine is picture research.
4. At the end of this week the cover is selected and the magazine prints on 4 July. We get the issues in our hands a week later and you can buy them here and on the newsstands from 18 July. These are the last five covers of ELLE Collections which do you like best?
Right, Im off to the Armani Summer party tonight.
THIS WEEK THE EDITOR IS:
Looking at the Whistles a/w look book and lusting after a grey wool coat with black collar
Listening to Hot Chips new album, In Our Heads
Wondering whos read Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James. Tell us by email (theeditorelle@elleuk.com) because were putting a feature together about it
