Lights, Cameras, Actors, Singers, Dancers, Supermodels—Action! How Vogue World: London Came Together

[classical music]

[Laura] We decided to have Vogue World here in London

to really celebrate the arts,

and the performing arts, especially.

The beating heart of that is really here on the streets,

not only in London, but all over the UK.

In our theaters, in our dance halls,

everywhere where anyone can access the performing arts.

Celebrating fashion here, in London,

but also across the world.

[Jack] Two more days.

[Laura] Two more days.

[Jack] Yeah, we re nearly there.

Yeah, we ve been fitting for six days now I think.

So we are here at Vogue House in Hanover Square,

and we are literally taking over the entire building

for Vogue World.

Yeah.

Jack, I think you ve overtaken.

Yeah, we ve stolen everyone s space.

So Fran and I work at the National Theater.

We met on quite a large show at the National Theater.

And that at the time felt pretty big, but this is,

yeah, it feels big in a different way.

[Emily] We d had this series of rehearsals

over the last four days in Stratford,

which felt unimaginably full

with 80 of the performers there, but that s 80 of 174.

And so over the next two days we re gonna make a lot

of new friends.

[Interviewer] How much is there left to do

before showtime?

[both breath nervously]

You know, I can t underline enough that I m sort

of Uncle Baz on this.

I m just helping out.

But Emily s been driving the vision of this

and she s got enormously brilliant credentials

in the theater.

Because it s at the Drury Lane,

we have to bring the fashion up to the level

of being theatrical in a way it s pushed maybe

beyond being something that s being too safe.

Our roles began very creatively

in conceiving what the show might be.

This thing that s somewhere

between a full theatrical experience, a catwalk show,

something between a benefit and a live piece of theater,

that doesn t feel like it s being thrown together.

Something that can celebrate so many disparate elements,

but in a way that celebrates what unites them rather,

than pointing out the differences between them.

[soft music]

[Baz] You know, this is a giant ambition, huge ambition.

I think Vogue World, the notion of it, is a huge ambition.

What it does, it recontextualizes fashion.

[Emily] We open with cameras in the wings

at different theaters and venues from across London,

and then there s this opera moment sung

by Hongni Wu while the Southbank Sinfonia play.

And we also see Kate Moss in a new Maison Margiela creation.

And we really put fashion and art facing each other.

Like is it a mirror?

Is it a competition?

Are they together?

Are they separate?

There s then this euphoric rave punk moment centered

around FKA twigs, but

with the entire company of Ram Bear dancing

around her and these incredible looks pulled together

by the Vogue team that celebrate

that punk spirit within British fashion now

which goes into Stormzy s 2019 track,

while Sophia Konadu performs this speech

from Henry the fourth, part two.

And then we have some Romeo and Juliet that takes them

to a new romantic moment that also catapults

through declarations of love into this new piece

by Wayne McGregor with the principal dancers

from the Royal Ballet in a creation that also includes AI

of them dancing and screens behind you

into this new comedy sketch, which is a celebration

of theater and what it does when it brings everyone

into a room together and they feel the same thing,

and their hearts literally beat together.

But then passing through this moment

about My Fair Lady, which Anna was so keen

to celebrate Cecil Beaton s contribution to that film

and the costumes, specifically the Ascot scene is kind

of what this show is, you know, fashion and theater uniting

into this moment that creates a whole world

and these costumes that provided the inspiration

for the final fashion moment with Annie Lennox

at the Center of its singing about Sweet Dreams

and her song is obviously so existential and searching

but I hope that by the end of that number you feel

that we ve kind of found a dream in this theater tonight.

[dramatic music]

Go upstage [indistinct]

[Baz] The whole team s really giving somewhere with it

in the rehearsal space and you re feeling really good

about it and this always happens.

And then you come in and you

as soon as you walk into the theater,

you go like, ah, the theater, isn t it great?

And then you go, hang on, it s so complicated.

[dramatic music]

Yeah, so today is the 13th of September.

It s the day before Vogue World London

and we are about to get

into the theater and tech rehearse the entire show.

It s crossed today

and tomorrow all the elements are coming together

with lighting, with sound, the staging of it.

And Emily s gonna try and piece that whole thing together.

And we also work out the livestream as well.

[violin sounds]

The show s just being tech team

which is always for everyone involved, terrifying.

And it doesn t matter what show it is

or where you re doing it,

because something that everyone s dreamed up

in a rehearsal space now has to be born

in a theatrical space, but you re also live streaming it.

But I am really thrilled that the person, we ve got, Sam,

he s of the new generation

and he s so cutting edge and forward thinking

and he s great to be around in the space.

So I feel really, you know, very, very not just comfortable,

excited as to what Sam s gonna do with it.

So I got involved with Vogue World last year

when we did it in New York.

You know, multiple different cameras and angles

and we cut that show live to air.

We ve, you know, we obviously given it some thought before

and we, we script a lot of moments, but yeah

when it kind of comes down

to the event, that s a completely live broadcast.

And taking is like, let s say in the scene, Kate is coming

from live on Sam s camera being ready with John Galliano

in Backstage and you see her coming

towards her standby position.

At the same time there s an opera singer

in the auditorium as she s singing

and Big Ben disappears,

Kate is revealed through the screen,

walks forward and the opera singer only hands over to Kate

and continues the number.

It falls away, bleeds through and there s an orchestra

on stage through the screen and the number is completed.

Now that seems quite simple, but you ve got an entrance,

lighting cues, not falling over the steps,

tracking the camera, you re calling two different kinds

of camera.

So Sam s doing a really wonderful broadcast camera

but we also have a broadcast within the show just

for the audience in the theater.

It s a different creature.

Only learned that two minutes ago.

So there s a lot of different captains of industry or

of their own particular techniques involved and everyone s

in everyone s way and you re doing it

in a very constrained amount of time,

very unrealistic amount of time to be honest

Before we see the show tomorrow night

there is the equivalent

of a pencil sketch that now has to be colored

in except with a show like this, it s more than coloring in.

It s like a pencil sketch that s about to

become a three D model that can also move autonomously.

Trying to explain to people in the room who were watching it

for the first time, everything else that was going on,

pointing and saying there s a spotlight there

there s an LED screen there,

That screen now has the back of Kate Moss s head

on it and the light is now coming through

from here and then this thing is moving over there

and that thing flies.

And we re using that camera to show you this

and in the rehearsal room it s a black aircraft hangar

with some people walking around in it.

So there s a lot to add

but we found a lot in the rehearsal room.

It was an amazing time.

There s definitely moments in the show where it s designed

and and and viewed very front on

in that kind of proscenium way.

You don t want the viewer to necessarily see the whole thing

from that point of view.

You wanna give them more access

but it s important to establish that that s what

the directors Emily and and Co are trying to do.

And so we re playing with how we change that

and when we change that in the broadcast

Whether I m working in whatever medium,

whether it s film or theater or it s in music,

the universal is the idea and the story.

The medium, the camera, the mechanisms, they re just tools.

Every time I see the Rambert dancers with FKA

I see something new in what s being created.

Rambert choreographer, Benoit has worked beautifully

and how James has thought about the model s interactions

whilst the dancers are also in that space.

It is such a beautiful moment.

I m just really looking forward to seeing it again,

even though I ve seen it like four times

five times in rehearsals, it s, it s gonna be brilliant.

As tweets goes out,

then hand over to storms who s in the audience

just stands up out of a table and starts performing.

It s quite a bit of that breaking down the fourth wall

and there s a kind of cabaret element to the whole show.

And then even what you re trying to find is,

you ve got this great Shakespearean actor who s

being dressed upstage in this extraordinary gown that

is both modern and also seems Elizabethan.

Suddenly Stormzy is singing

about heavy is the head that wears the crown.

But what s great is one is truly a rap performance,

but then there s a piece of true,

you can t get more theater than Shakespeare.

Oh, sleep.

Oh, gentle Sleep.

It s such a big theater, isn t it? [laughs]

[Man] I Know.

[Fran] I remember there was one point

we were sat in a tiny room at the National Theater

and we were just coming out with ideas.

There were post-it notes on walls

and we had a theater photo book in front

of us and there was one of a backstage image, it was sort of

behind the scenes that someone was just doing a quick change

and we were like, wouldn t that be amazing

to kind of capture someone being dressed

in front of an audience?

It kind of became this moment that you ll see in the show.

It grew and it evolved and we talked to Laura Ingham

and then it became, what If Westwood created that dress?

We went and met with the Westwood team and that

and so it was actually a real kind of collaboration.

The two worlds kind of really came together

to create that idea that then kind of lives on,

which you ll see in the show.

[Director] Okay, ladies and gentleman in the house.

We are imminently close to a dress run.

Please keep all eyes clear, please take a seat.

[indistinct]

[gentle music]

[Emily] It s the day of the show,

and the models have arrived

and now this thing that we ve built

in theory with 20 stand-ins has to be taught

in an impossibly short amount of time

to 60 people who flew in this morning.

That s today.

[all laugh]

[Laura] So it s been a really long process,

but a really fun one.

Everyone has been so collaborative.

That s the one thing I think

about the project that s been so incredible.

People from so many different industries colliding

and working together on this show on Thursday evening.

[Jack] The nice thing about England and London

is everyone is very like helpful in one another

in working with a team.

Fashion is really difficult and it s really hard work.

I think ultimately that everyone should come away

with that kind of feeling of it kind of being a good memory.

[Director] Just hold positions, please, hold positions.

As [indistinct] director,

you re very involved from the start

of conversations about kind of how the room forms

and how you might place cameras

and capture the different moments.

And so the chance to collaborate with Baz Luhrmann.

and Emily and Steven Dory has been incredibly rewarding.

To kind of take ideas

and let them evolve and let camera feed

into them is just such a great process to be part of.

[Emily] It s really interesting thinking about how fashion

and theater are working together in this show

and it s been one

of the most complicated and rewarding parts of it.

[dramatic music]

[Baz] It s so genuinely collaborative

and people work in different ways.

When you do a fashion show

or if you do like a stadium show, that s a music show,

when you make a piece of film or a piece broadcast.

Very different processes

and they re very different disciplines.

And what s wonderful,

you re seeing all these creatives,

just having to work it out.

I mean, whatever we have out there,

there s something new about it.

[dramatic music]

[Announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats.

Vogue World, London is about to begin.