Antrim: He said he wanted to make something that would make people happy, and that is absolutely in step with what Anna was thinking. So that was good to hear. Of course, with any magazine, you do start with a cover to some degree, and he really knew who he wanted to be his cover star, which was Anna, and Anna was not having that. So she politely let him say it one or two times and then she shut it down and she said, “It’s not happening.” And that was the end of that.
Malle: But you did get a pretty iconic image of Anna in the issue.
Antrim: Right. In those earliest meetings, someone said—it was Marc, probably—“We have to have a picture of the two bobs.” So Anna’s hairstyle, Marc’s hairstyle, uncannily similar, needed to be shot from behind. So we have these two bobs, and indeed we did create that picture and it’s really great.
Malle: So Anna did not want herself to be on the cover. Did Marc immediately have his next idea, or was that a evolving conversation?
Smith: I think Kaia came up very early on in the conversation.
Antrim: Really early.
Smith: Kaia was really discussed because he loves her and has a longstanding relationship with her. So she was settled on early on. We actually did that shoot really early. We did it this summer and Grace Coddington did that story with us. We spent a very fun Friday afternoon in the Vogue closet with a very good-natured Kaia. Marc’s clothes are these magical creations, but they take a lot to get on and off.
Antrim: All the clothes in that shoot were Marc.
Smith: Yes, exactly. That was a unique thing. We felt we wanted to celebrate Marc in that way. Marc’s very much about wanting to shine the light on others, but he agreed to have the cover story be only his collection. It was actually so fun. It was great to be working with Grace again. It really felt like coming back home, in a way.
Malle: And there’s another cover.
Antrim: That’s right. This was either the first or the second meeting: He talked about the painter Anna Weyant, who is a friend of his whose work he reveres. He said from the jump, he was like, “We should do a art cover as well as a portrait cover.” So he wanted Anna Weyant to paint Kaia. There is some history of art covers at Vogue. John Currin painted Jennifer Lawrence on the cover of the September issue, so [Marc] was thinking of that, but he was also just really wanting to shine a light on Anna Weyant, who’s this superstar herself. But she came to the fitting that Virginia was just describing and got a little time with Kaia and got her photographs that she needed to do her painting. Then she went away and did this amazing painting.
Malle: There’s some incredible images in this issue. I’m curious about the dance shoot, which seemed like a Herculean undertaking, I have to say. When I looked at it, I was thrilled I wasn’t a part of this.
