Vogue August 2015

Living WELL Extraordinary homes (and the latest finds to add to yours). Entertaining advice from Vogue’s most trusted experts. Exactly where to be jetting and eating now. And—from bouquets to bands—all things wedding. Vogue.com’s new Living coverage has it all. the Flower CROWN —PAST AND PRESENT These popular decorative headpieces actually have very deep roots, and despite detractors, the accessory shows no signs of fading from favor. We trace its history from ancient times to the red carpet.…

Two admirable women, Nicole Kidman and Tory Burch, take center stage in this issue, affording us the opportunity to catch up on their lives. And I would emphasize lives here. Both Nicole and Tory, for all their phenomenally busy and accomplished careers, are deeply committed to their families and their time away from work—a commitment made only stronger by the personal challenges that each of them has had to rise above over the years. When I saw Nicole on a Vogue shoot in England at Waddesdon Manor not long after her wedding to Keith Urban, she told me, “Anna, I love being married.” The contentment that radiated from Nicole is the kind that can affect every area of one’s life, and she certainly must be thrilled with how everything is…

ENGLISH ROSE The cover photo of Carey Mulligan was mesmerizing, and the corresponding article [“Passion Player,” by Gaby Wood, photographed by Mikael Jansson, May] gave me just enough background on one of my favorite actors. I am happy to allow her to keep her private life private—it makes her more interesting as an actor, as it does Mulligan’s heroes Tilda Swinton and Kate Winslet. Barbara Sheltraw Saginaw, MI A PROCESS TO REMEMBER Thank you for the illuminating behind-the-scenes glimpse of Elisabeth TNT’s preparation for this year’s Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute gala [TNT, Flash, May]. Having waited with bated breath to see how the evening’s attendees would sartorially interpret “China: Through the Looking Glass,” I was fascinated to see how much planning and anticipatory excitement goes into the big night. Juliane…

IMOGEN Waterhouse “Acting certainly helps modeling, in my mind, since it’s all about confidence.” THE “STEAL OF THE MONTH” SUBJECT ON HER TWIN CAREERS (PAGE 188) MICHAEL B. Jordan You’re getting me right in the middle of a creative session,” Michael B. Jordan says one afternoon in June. “I’m developing this graphic novel right now, but I can’t say too much about it.” Fitting, then, that the 28-year-old is about to experience his first bona fide movie-star moment with the premiere of Fantastic Four—he plays the Human Torch alongside costars Kate Mara, Miles Teller, and Jamie Bell (and he also appears in Tabitha Simmons’s “Heart & Soul,” page 150). And unlike other actors who might wear their capes begrudgingly, Jordan is a genuine comic-book nerd. Growing up in New Jersey,…

After we’d been dating about three weeks, Ian told me what he really did over breakfast at a restaurant on Broadway and Seventysecond Street. We made an odd pair: a distinguished-looking 42-year-old man in a business suit and a 20-something in jeans and a T-shirt. I had been up writing all night and was so desperate for coffee that my fingers were trembling. Ian reached across the table for my hand. “I have to tell you something,” he said. “I’m not really a diplomat. I work for MI6.” I blinked. “What’s MI6?” He looked startled. “Well, you know . . . MI6.” “I just told you I don’t know what that is,” I said. “Like James Bond,” he said. I didn’t know how to respond. I didn’t know much about…

It was the summer of 1995; I had just finished my final exams at Trinity College, Dublin, and was at my family home, Glin Castle, in west Limerick, helping in the kitchen. We had recently opened for bed-andbreakfast, and the castle was busy with guests. The phone rang: It was British Vogue. They were planning a trip to Ireland, starting in Dublin and heading west. Their story was to have a bohemian feel: Pre-Raphaelite girls with pale skin and great halos of red hair— set off by the faded Georgian splendor of eighteenth-century town houses and castles. Could they come to Glin? We had had fashion shoots at the house before; just a couple of years earlier Arthur Elgort had arrived with Nadja Auermann and shot in one of our…