In her 10 years at the helm of the magazine, she has
overseen fancy photo shoots with A-list stars, insider moments with top
designers and the times the magazine hits the zeitgeist just right. Bailey
highlights many of them in a new book about her decade in charge, “Harper’s
Bazaar: Greatest Hits,” and in an interview with The Associated Press, she
listed her favorites: —Demi Moore’s 2010 cover, where she shared the coveted
front-page real estate with a giraffe. Moore wore a dress and the 10-inch
Armadillo heels from Alexander McQueen’s last collection on a staircase to
nowhere. The image was shot a few weeks before McQueen’s suicide, but Bailey
said she could think of no better tribute to him.
—William Klein’s portraits of designers, shot in 2007, his
first fashion photographs in more than three decades. Bailey said the images
captured the designers the way they chose to present themselves: Marc Jacobs
practically having a party in the studio, Miuccia Prada all by herself, Karl
Lagerfeld surrounded by his muses and the craftsmen who bring the vision to
life, and Alber Elbaz with his entire staff, from the company president to the
cleaner, doing a little dance.
—Naomi Campbell’s stunning 2009 “Wild Things” spread by Jean
Paul Goode, especially the supermodel wearing a Blumarine cheetah-print dress
outrunning a cheetah. “When those pictures arrived on my desk, it was fashion
heaven,” Bailey says. “I can’t remember ever being speechless, but I was.” —The
animated characters of “The Simpsons” taking a tour of Paris in 2007 with Linda
Evangelista as their tour guide. Marge met Lagerfeld, Jacobs, Elbaz, Donatella
Versace and Jean Paul Gaultier.
“Marc Jacobs loved his illustration so much, he had his made
as a tattoo on his arm,” reports Bailey.
—Top models Amber Valletta, Claudia Schiffer, Cindy
Crawford, Shalom Harlow, Kristen McMenamy and Nadja Auermann posing without
makeup for Peter Lindbergh in 2007. The women — all in their 30s and 40s —
showed they were embracing their looks and age, Bailey says.
The gallery is still one of the most popular features on the
Bazaar website.
“When people talk about Bazaar, they talk about a fun,
fashionable, feel-good fashion magazine. They know we have a sense of humor,”
says Bailey,” but I think we’re also renowned for our ideas.” —The
all-important September issue of 2009, which was going to press months earlier
when news came of Michael Jackson’s death. Bailey went into action and had
Agyness Deyn dress up in Jackson’s signature style in a red leather jacket,
cropped black pants and military jackets. The next month the magazine scored an
interview with Janet Jackson.
“When Michael Jacket passed away, a lot of people wanted to
talk to her. It was a sign of us being able to move quickly,” the editor says.
—Features that presented fashion as part of pop culture,
incorporating art, music and movies. Over the years, Bazaar has paid homage to
filmmakers Mike Nichols, Tim Burton and Pedro Almodovar.
In one photo, Lagerfeld and Almodovar, guns in hand,
recreate a scene from “Live Flesh.” —Kate Winslet’s “exquisite” white strapless
gown by Ralph Lauren, peeled straight from the runway for a cover shoot in
2009. She stood on what looks like rooftop scaffolding high above Manhattan. “In
reality, she’s not that high off the ground, but it looks like she’s risking
life and limb, and that’s what you want from a fashion magazine. You want to
dream. You want to be aspirational and uplifting; literally in this particular
case,” says Bailey.
She adds, “So often with celebs you see them doing the same
thing time and time again. That seems dated. I want to see them in a new light.
I’m buying a fashion magazine because I want to see the relevance of the time I
live and I also want to see what’s coming next.”
