I had my Vogue and I’m sure Edward Enninful will have his

Alexandra Shulman bows out today after 25 years editing British Vogue. She tells

ALEXANDRAShulmanushers me into her empty office at Vogue House, apologising that its pale pink and white walls are completely bare apart from a d i s p l ay o f Vo g u e magazines in one corner. Today is her last day as British Vogue’s editor-in- chief after 25 years at the helm. “Sometimes it feels strangely nothing, sometimes terrifying and at other times sad. I just have to get through this bit. Leaving is never nice, so you just have to have tunnel vision,” says Shulman, who resigned last December.

Downstairs, 40 boxes of books, files, notebooks and diaries are packed and waiting for her, so she’s keen to cut the interview short to get it back to her Queen’s Park home as soon as possible “which is really daunting as I probably don’t need to keep it all, but can’t bring myself to go through it all now”, she says matter-of-factly.

Her final issue of the magazine comes out in September, while the October and November issues will be edited by her deputy Emily Sheffield, before Edward Enninful, the new editor, arrives in August.

Since his surprise appointment was announced in April, the fashion world has been buzzing with rumours about his lack of editing experience, his huge salary and even bigger relocation costs from New York (where he is currently fashion and st yle direc tor of W Magazine), his alleged plans to purge Vogue of its “posh girl” staff and make the magazine content much more diverse.

In the past few weeks news of highlevel resignations by some of Shulman’s longest-serving old guard — with doubtless more to come — has caused alarm in some quarters, and “now it’s like a snowball. But it wasn’t my ambition to dismantle Vogue at all,” she says.

“I don’t know Edward and I don’t know what he’s going to do,” she continues, tapping her white-patent, Manolo-clad foot impatiently, “but I can safely assume that he will want to do something very different. I do think he’s a really brilliant stylist.”

As she talks, her eyes dart from one side of the room to the other with palpable nervous energy. “When I came to Vogue back in the dark ages I

‘I was on the Condé Nast board but I resigned a long time ago when I realised they didn’t do anything’

changed it a lot. I think you have to expect that from editors. I have my Vogue. I’m sure he’s going to change things radic ally to make it his,” although understandably she won’t be drawn on how he might achieve this. “But I will say that I have a fantastic staff and I’m not happy at the idea of anyone losing their jobs.”

She bridles at the suggestion that Vogue could do with being a bit more diverse. “I don’t think we’ve been undiverse, actually. When you look back at what my Vogue had, I do think I’ve broadened out its appeal, whether it’s to do with different ages of women or men, different body types and professions.

I don’t know whether the new regime will continue to do articles about female engineers building Crossrail, for example. And I’m very proud of the [ July] Ageless Style issue. You would never have seen that in Vogue before I came.”

Coincidentally, the issue includes a naked selfie of incoming fashion director, photographer Venetia Scott.

At 59, is there anything that Shulman feels she is too old to wear? She looks impeccable today in a sleeveless top and tight white-lace skirt. “It’s by Erdem — E-R-D-E-M,” she adds, when I ask who designed it. “No there isn’t, but I could never wear mini-skirts because I’ve always had terrible legs and I can’t wear all these wonderful flouncy floral dresses with ruffles because I just look tragic in them,” she says in the same self-deprecating tone she occasionally used to describe how she looked in her diary, Inside Vogue ( just out in paperback). One thing she is not, is vain.

H av i n g defended the fashion industry’s ongoing love affair with using size-zero models on the catwalk, she also turns out to be an ambivalent champion of feminism and glass ceilings. “I don’t feel terribly, you know, God, ‘ men in suits ruling our lives’ at all, at all. It’s not been my experience here but I’m probably somewhat backward in that way.”

Why wasn’t she on the board of Condé Nast? “I was but I resigned a long