Ex-Vogue boss, 59, and her warts and all bikini selfie
The 59-year-old’s style bible was full of skinny models yet feminists are cheering this warts ’n’ all selfie ...
AS THE former Editor of Vogue, she spent much of her career working with impossibly slim models.
But yesterday, Alexandra Shulman celebrated her release from the fashion bible with her own unairbrushed bikini picture.
The 59-year-old, who is on holiday on the Greek island of Spetses, posted a snap to Instagram with the caption: ‘Ready for the boat trip!’
The picture quickly racked up thousands of likes with users thanking Miss Shulman for her ‘honesty’.
Despite working with some of the world’s most glamorous women, Miss Shulman has spoken of the ‘pressure of the beauty parade we all undergo’, referring to the arduous beauty rituals that women subject themselves to.
Speaking in an interview with this newspaper in 2009, the mother- ofone said: ‘Despite all this, I am comfortable in my body. I don’t think it’s particularly great. But it doesn’t bother me hugely and makes me realise that being comfortable with your figure has relatively little to do with how you actually look.’
Miss Shulman has also previously lashed out at fashion houses who ‘flat out refused’ to dress plus-size model Ashley Graham for her cover shoot.
In her editor’s letters in January she wrote: ‘It seems strange to me that while the rest of the world is desperate for fashion to embrace broader definitions of physical beauty, some of our most famous fashion brands appear to be travelling in the opposite — and in my opinion, unwise — direction.’
Many called Miss Shulman ‘inspirational’ yesterday for posting the photo. One wrote: ‘Thank you for sharing beautiful lady @ alexandrashulman Style and grace in abundance.’
Another said: ‘@alexandrashulman now im packing my bikinis when I go away on Saturday thanks to you. Respect.x’ One simply said: ‘Fantastic liberated and free x’
In her diary of Vogue’s 100th year, Miss Shulman told how she prefers clothes from High Street favourite Jigaw, and of her fears that dressing in designerwear would make her look like a ‘bag lady’. Miss Shulman, who was at the helm of fashion bible Vogue for 25 years, announced earlier this year that she was stepping down. Amid a huge shake-up at the Condé Nast offices, Edward Enninful is taking over her role.
Just a week ago, Miss Shulman signed off her final issue, writing on Instagram: ‘So excited to receive my final issue of Vogue as Editor-in-chief. Filled with fashion and memories and the women who made a difference in the past quarter of a century.’
She has said she needs to be ‘tethered to something’ and fears the ‘huge gap’ that Vogue will leave.
Miss Shulman, who plans to continue in journalism and write another book, brought up her only son, Sam, whose father is U.S. writer Paul Spike, largely on her own. Sam is now 22 and has a first in History of Art from University College London.
Despite her clear successes as a mother and a journalist, Miss Shulman has said that women can’t have it all and doesn’t understand why they have created such ‘impossible standards’ for themselves.
‘Men can’t have it all either,’ she said. ‘But maybe they’re not trying to.’
Many called her ‘inspirational’