MEETING OF MINDS
Marion Hume was a well-respected British fashion journalist when she joined Vogue Australia as editor in 1997. Marion von Adlerstein was travel director when they met, after having started with the magazine more than 20 years earlier.
Marion Hume joined Vogue Australia as editor in 1997 and quickly formed a close bond with travel director Marion von Adlerstein.
MARION HUME: “Marion, I’m sitting here in London and I am sure that you are looking a million times more chic than me. I have to admit this now: I am wearing jeans and sneakers.”
MARION VON ADLERSTEIN: “Well, I’m only just out of bed [in Sydney]! Do you remember when we first met?”
MH: “I arrived at Vogue at the end of February 1997. You walked into my office, this slender, elegant, wonderful woman, and said: ‘I’m Marion’, and I was momentarily confused, thinking: ‘No, I’m Marion!’”
MVA: “We liked each other instantly.”
MH: “We became such good friends. I remember spending Christmas Day at your home, which was a beautiful introduction to Australian Christmas.”
MVA: “When I started at Vogue [in 1976] it was very conservative. It was really a colonial version of British Vogue, but it had begun to change. It was already addressing subjects like women taking charge of their own lives. But feminism was not a word that was used at that time in the magazine. We were still focussing on skirt lengths, mini or maxi.”
MH: “My experience was completely opposite. Australia seemed not at all conservative by 1997. On the second Sunday I was in Australia I went to Nielsen Park with the Zimmermann sisters. I was walking behind them and they were wearing lacy dresses (of their own design) with their swimwear underneath and I could see their bikinis. I was staggered that these professional women were in a public place and I could see their underwear. But the lack of diversity was something I did find shocking.”
MVA: “But I have to tell you, soon after I started working at Vogue I wrote a big feature on immigration and Australia’s identity crisis. And then very soon after that I wrote a big feature on Aboriginal achievers in various fields. And I remember writing a very stern piece on why women should not be afraid of feminism. So I was having a go back then.”
MH: “That’s why you and I fell in love. We are both feisty activists. You hide it much better than me – under a beautifully ironed white shirt.”
MVA: “I’m subversive and you are much more overt. You certainly shook up the fashion industry when you were here, Marion. It was very much to the good.”
MH: “Well, I hope so. I mean I look at Australia now from a long distance, but I’m still very connected to it. I see the Australian designers when they come to Paris and London. It’s lovely to see how ambitious they are and how high they fly.”
MVA: “Beauty was always fundamental to Vogue. I remember when the focus shifted beyond make-up and artifice to skincare and health in general – fitness, nutrition, spas, yoga and transcendental meditation.”
MH: “By 1997 Australia was so far ahead in terms of women looking fit and strong as opposed to ‘thin’ … it was a much more all-round healthy idea. And in culture, it was such a brilliant time in terms of film. We had a party in the Vogue offices and all these people who are now movie stars turned up because they were just beginning … like Rachel Griffiths, Miranda Otto and Cate Blanchett – she wwas the rising starr – and Ben Mendelsohn. They were just at the brink.”
MVA: “And Vogue was always so good at identifying people early.”
MH: “The fashion industry was very different in 1997. You could only get the international labels from a dutyfree shop. In terms of overriding memories, my time was brief and a lot happened. It was just the most incredible moment of privilege and making brilliant friendships. I’ve a huge love of Vogue.”
MVA: “With the two of us, I think there was that mutual liking from the start. You said the word before, it was such a privilege in so many ways.”
MH: “And now it’s 60 years. What a privilege that we’ve played a part of it. It gave us the world. It gave me Australia. It’s so glossy and glamorous but it’s also serious and empowering to women. It’s a voice for us.” ■