Extreme Beauty in Vogue

[Michael] In most people s minds,

a woman covered in surgical gore,

with sort of strange things applied to her face

(laughing) is not exactly beauty.

(light upbeat music)

(paparazzi shouting)

We re here in a glacial evening here in Milan,

at a party thrown by Dolce and Gabbana,

co-hosted by Anna Wintour and Fraca Sozzani

and the major of Milan.

In celebration of extreme beauty in Vogue.

[Phyllis] Anna asked me to choose photographs

that I thought would be good for the exhibition.

So I went through all the archives,

so before I showed Anna the first edit,

I looked at her and I said, they re quite extreme.

She said, oh, good!

We ll call the exhibition Extreme Beauty.

(upbeat techno music)

[Stefano] The beauty piece is like a fashion picture,

by beauty, maybe you dream more.

Because in other beauties, it s more the line

what is beauty, what is not,

is a different point-of-view.

[Phyllis] The strong pictures actually

fell into curtain groups.

The bodies, the Penn,

the heads

and then the icons is one picture

from each of the most important photographers

in the exhibition.

[Nadja] You can always notice a Helmut picture in a way.

He has a particular style,

and to be a part of this shooting was very exciting.

Was a shoe story, high heels, and I thought he

showed his great sense of humor

trying to show that you really handicapped when

you re wearing high heels.

[Lauren] We just played.

Dick and I just played all the time.

And it showed in the pictures.

[Phyllis] And one day he said,

I wanna do a picture called Sweetie.

He was very fasinated by all the

candied fruits that Puchong had.

We had two girls. It s very strange,

but even with their faces covered,

one s always better than the other.

[Ivan] It was an incredible experience

to see a Edward Steichen print new again.

Those pieces come from the Conde Nast Archive

and they have the original transparencies and negatives,

and we were able to access those images

and create our own prints.

Yeah, it s one of the oldest images in the show,

but put it next to Steven Klein,

next to Helmut Newton and it fits right in.

[Michael] Vogue is the preeminent

fashion and beauty magazine.

And so, therefore, I would expect and I found,

within this collection, some of my favorite

pictures of all time from some of the

greatest photographers who have ever lived.

[Phyllis] I m just proud that vogue has published

all these incredible images.

And as far back as 1930, vogue was doing

things in a very different way from other magazines.

We aren t so much about a pretty face, we do that,

but those aren t the pictures that people remember.

(upbeat music)