Letter from the Editor
FLOWERS OF THE FLOCK
FROM FAR LEFT: TOM STURRIDGE, OLIVIA
WILDE, AND REED BIRNEY STAR IN SONIA
FRIEDMAN’S 1984. PHOTOGRAPHED BY ANTON
CORBIJN. BELOW: VOGUE ANNIVERSARY
ROSES. PHOTOGRAPHED BY ERIC BOMAN.
From Strong Roots
THIS JUNE BRINGS TOGETHER TWO OF MY FAVORITE
things in one issue—gardens and the theater. When we be-
gan discussing last year some new and original ways we
could celebrate our 125th anniversary, Features Director
Eve MacSweeney had the rather brilliant idea of creating a
Vogue rose. As you will read in Nathan Heller’s ode to our
very own flower (“First Blush,” page 112), it was handy that
we like to plan well in advance at this magazine: Our creation
took months and months to blossom, quite literally, and
involved crisscrossing the country several times to work with
farmers, breeders, and gardeners to develop it. (I spent many
a features meeting inquiring about its condition and when it
would finally be able to be photographed. Major Hollywood
stars need less cultivation.)
All of the discussion around the rose led us to think more
tangentially about the subject. We photographed some young
roses of a different kind—a new generation of smart, capable
women who are out and about and engaged with the world
in a way that does without the dreaded need to add the suffix
“ite” to social (“In Full Bloom,” page 114). And it led us to
shoot our cover star, Elle Fanning, in some of s pring’s most
gorgeous bloomed-and-sprigged dresses in spooky-pretty
New Orleans (“Swept Away,” page 87). Elle was photographed
by Annie Leibovitz and styled by Grace Coddington—be-
cause when one needs a romantic eye on fashion, it is always
Grace that one turns to. Nathan Heller, who has been kept
extraordinarily busy this month, traveled southward to meet
this remarkable nineteen-year-old actress, and he returned as
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VOGUE JUNE 2017
impressed with her as we are; it is admirable to see Elle at her
relatively tender age defy categorization and classification as
an actor, choosing instead to stretch herself with cutting-edge
directors such as Mike Mills and Sofia Coppola.
Lastly, we have another way of celebrating our 125th birth-
day in a year in which we’re profiling women who define our
era in every issue. This month it is the turn of those who live
and breathe theater—timing that is entirely deliberate, given
that the Tony Awards take place in New York on June 11 (and
as an enthusiastic member of the audience, I’m delighted
at the unexpected choice of Kevin Spacey as host; perhaps
he’ll go for the political jugular). The writer Hadley Free-
man profiles the London-based producer Sonia Friedman
(“Gold Standard,” page 120), who has enviable instincts as
to what makes a play a cultural phenomenon; her 1984 opens
on Broadway in June, just one of the fifteen shows she now
has in production on both sides of the Atlantic. Meanwhile,
Adam Green introduces some of the newest actors, directors,
and playwrights (“Center Stage,” page 126) who are, as he
puts it, storming the fortress of the boys’ club. Adam’s piece
heralds the arrival of their impressive and compelling voices,
to be sure—yet it also welcomes the triumph of diversity in
today’s theatrical landscape.
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