Back in the depths of COVID’s first lockdown, Vogue magazine dropped the 13-part podcast series In Vogue: The 1990s, delving into the decade’s glamorous fashion history. Phenomena like the rise of the supermodels, Tom Ford’s Gucci, It-Girls and their It-Bags, and London’s fashion scene all had dedicated episodes, lifting the lid on the role Vogue played in those prominent fashion moments. Now, that podcast is getting a shiny new Disney+ series, and the first star-studded trailer has just dropped this week.
Soundtracked by “Free Your Mind” by En Vogue (see what they did there), a gaggle of huge names appear in the trailer for In Vogue: The 90s to tell us just how crazy that decade of fashion really was. Anna Wintour, Victoria Beckham, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kim Kardashian, Missy Elliott, Marc Jacobs, John Galliano, Tom Ford, Amber Valletta and Sarah Jessica Parker are all on hand to exclaim buzzwords into the camera, from “whirlwind”, “messy”, and “crazy”, to “sexuality”, “identity” and “freedom.”
Other Vogue editors including Hamish Bowles, Edward Enninful and Tonne Goodman also pop up to give their brief insights, plus there’s lots of teased appearances from other names like Kate Moss, Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, Miuccia Prada, Grace Coddington and “many, many more”. The trailer is a masterclass in saying a lot without really saying much at all, drumming up excitement for the series with flashing archive imagery of people like Lil’ Kim, Liam Gallagher, and Alexander McQueen, while showing all the shocked faces of the famous talking heads.
As well as glamorous images of a bygone era, the trailer also trades on the mystique of Vogue’s most famous figurehead. At the mention of Anna Wintour’s name, the clip cuts to a shot of Kim Kardashian, wide-eyed, exclaiming “Oh my god.” Just after that, we hear a faceless producer ask, “Would you mind awfully taking your sunglasses off?” awaiting Wintour’s response. “No”, says the editor-in-chief, drily. “I’m gonna wear them.” In 2024, most fashion figures are wary of projecting an icy persona, out of fear of seeming like an imperial relic of the past, but Wintour isn’t like most fashion figures. Arguably, she is a figure of a fashion world that doesn’t really exist anymore, but that’s what makes her presence a continued point of intrigue and respect.
The three-episode first part of In Vogue: The 90s premieres September 13 on Disney+, followed by part two on September 20