Image courtesy of RufusBlogs
So by now you would have seen features, blog posts, pictures, best bits from the Vogue Festival all over the internet. I for one Tweeted a lot over the weekend just gone from London's Southbank - the venue for this year's festival. It was a very interesting weekend. Talks from every leading Vogue journalist, including Editor Alexandra Shulman, British designers, some celebs, Victoria Beckham (OMG), the worlds leading photographers and models... suffice to say, it was (a very fashionable) brain overload, of the best kind.I went to most of the talks, either involving four or five on a panel or just one-on-one with a celeb/designer and someone from Vogue. Most talks were an hour-long which, if you ask me, might not have been long enough! Some of the time it only meant scratching the surface of a story or a subject. With a couple of the talks, I wanted to hear more.I'm not going to write reams and reams on the festival, instead I'm going to give you some of my favourite quotes from the speakers I loved. So here goes...
Victoria Beckham...
"I have a great team, we talk and come up with ideas, then I get naked and make clothes on myself!"
"Everyone thinks I'm going to be such a cow. I get it though, when I see all the pictures of myself."
"I have eight minutes to show the press and my customers what my fashion inspiration is that season. And it's incredibly expensive. The pressure is on."
"I was so aware of people having preconceptions, but I was so pleased that they left those preconceptions at the door [before seeing a collection]. They are judging the collection on the collection. Marc Jacobs did actually say that they don't leave their preconceptions at the door, your clothes speak for themselves now."
"I have four kids so I don't have as much time in the mornings. I think about what I'm going to wear the night before."
"I'm looking into retail now. I like to have a look around at what people are doing. What is new. I want my first store in London... something conceptual but something my customer can relate to."
"I created my Victoria line so I could offer the customer something less expensive."
"What I love about selling on the internet is that people can see my brand through my eyes"
"I'm really quite boring."
"I have the same team that I had when I started over six years ago. I have some interns who are now high up in the company in press, marketing etc."
"I really love women. I want them to feel confident and empowered in my clothes. A lot of my customers say my clothes make them feel great."
Donatella Versace...
"Can you sew? No!"
"Can you cook? No!"
"I will never forgive Christopher [Kane] for doing flat shoes for Versus!"
"I work out three or four times a week... I stopped working with a trainer because he wouldn't let me smoke. And I have beautiful Versace ashtrays!"
"I love the digital world. I'm obsessed with it."
"I'm a very curious person. What I had wasn't enough for me. I needed more."
"I'm designing for a powerful woman. What you wear should make you very confident..."
"Something Gianna always told me... Be fearless, be provocative and be daring."
"My personal style is not that broad. I wear heels, tight pants, black dresses, fur and diamonds."
[proudest moment?] "Right now. With you kids in front of me, asking me questions."
[Talking about mourning the death of her brother] "We spoke on the phone four minutes before he was shot. I didn't want to disappoint him. I wouldn't want my worst enemy to go through what I went through. It taught me a lot. I was crying in private, but in public I had to be strong."
"Mourning my brother was the hardest thing I've done in my life, but I had to survive for the business."
"My favorite collection is the next one. I never look back"
"When I saw the reaction to the H&M collaboration, all the young kids lining up, it made me much more secure of my history"
"I would like my legacy to be 'fight for your ideas'"
Michael Kors...
"Fashion is like food. Some people like sushi, others think hamburgers are divine. People like different things."
"The woman is the picture. I'm the framer. It's my job to make you look good."
"Sigourney Weaver and Lil' Kim - so similar! - same dress. I know I do my job well when I see women wearing something of mine and it looks different on them."
"When I started I thought selling in Toronto Canada was glamorous. Now we have a store in Kuala Lumpur!"
"I have kids telling me they can't get a fashion job, so I say go work in a store. Be hands on."
"I do sportswear, clothes you can move in. There should be an easiness to it, even if it's glamorous"
"I can do a fitting and order food in French, Italian and German. That works for me."
"Your clothes come to like because of who you dress. My first show in 1984 opened with Iman"
Find out what Alber Elbaz and Anna Dello Russo had to say, plus a video of highlights too...
Alber Elbaz...
"Fashion is fantasy. It's a dream and it should remain that way"
"I don't go to a lot of red carpet parties. Our jobs are to be the producer and not the product."
"There's so much reality TV. We live in a reality show now. I love Kim Kardashian."
"The only paragraphs on a contract I read every line of is the one about freedom of design. It's my oxygen. If I don't have freedom I can't work"
"I decided that I was going to make clothes for women, not the editors."
"I am all about contradictions: I like restaurants but I don't like the portions or the food. I prefer McDonalds. I like first class but I don't like the people in first class. I like the people in coach."
"When I look at portfolios I look at page 1,2 and 3. Then I stop because it is all about chemistry."
"I went to the psychiatrist to find out why when I see a sandwich, I think I must have another one."
"I hate Twitter!"
"So many people are just Googling Africa rather than going to Africa, because they don't have time" (talking about inspiration)
"I sometimes go into the store (in Paris). Some customers know me. Some people ask 'have you got this dress in a different colour?' and I say 'let me go and check'"
"I asked the owner of Lanvin when I started there what she wanted from me, and she said: 'To wake up the sleeping beauty'"
Mad About The Girl - Susie Bubble, Anna Dello Russo and Garance Dore
Anna Dello Russo:
"Street style photographers are the new paparazzi. When Scott [Schuman] first approached me I was flattered. I feel comfortable with them, it's like opening a window with fresh air."
"I remember 20 years ago in the fashion houses there was pictures of the models on the mood boards, now it's street style pictures on the boards."
"I don't take myself seriously. That's why I did fashion shower. I'm not a diva at all, I just love fashion."
"I plan all my outfits six months in advance"
"I used to dress the models for my job, now I dress myself too. It's my alphabet. I need the right words."
Susie Bubble:
"The blogs I like the best are the ones that don't have a business agenda behind them"
"Street style has become an integral part of the industry"
Behind the scenes of a Vogue cover shoot...
Lucinda Chambers, Vogue's fashion director, on the Emma Watson cover: "The Eurostar train manager stole all the clothes... I had sunglasses on and one of the assistants had a hat on, which made up two shots... she said she'd been waiting for this moment for 10 years. Her whole attitude wasn't happy, but I loved the shoot."
Lucinda Chambers on the Cheryl Cole cover: "It's not a celeb's comfort zone. I've very rarely met a celeb who's comfortable being photographed. Cheryl said she had a headache and felt very sweaty... when I saw the paper a few days later, I found out it wasn't a headache at all, it was malaria... Patrick (Demarchelier) kept calling her Cherie, he had no idea who she was!"
"One of your jobs as an editor is to make everyone feel comfortable and that they are at ease." Lucinda Chambers
"Being on a Vogue cover made me so nervous, it was like I had just started modelling again!" Cara Delevingne
"A cover is only 10% me, the rest is all the hair, make-up, photographer and fashion editor team." Cara Delevingne
"I now have so much respect for models and modelling. It's physically and mentally hard. You must be able to deal with rejection." Cara Delevingne
"It shows we don't have a formula for our covers. We don't have a certain girl or crop etc." Alexandra Shulman on Princess Diana's cover.
"We don't think there's much point in doing another cover. We think our final covers are the best and want everyone to see that one." Alexandra Shulman on not having a separate subscribers cover
And here's a little video...