Turning the Pages of Stoppers With Vogue’s Executive Fashion Editor, Phyllis Posnick

I have one or two pages to tell a story.

Alexander Liberman used the word stoppers

to describe Penn's pictures because they were so strong

that as the readers flipped through the magazine,

Penn's pictures made them stop and look.

The execution of an idea is different

with every photographer I work with

because I try to see through the photographer's eyes.

So, the same idea for Penn or Helmut or Bruce Weber

or Tim Walker would be completely different.

Anna asked me if I had any ideas about illustrating

a food article on fried chicken.

And I knew that Helmut loved to photograph chickens.

So, I called him up,

Helmut, do you have any ideas?

And he said, Yes, I've always wanted to photograph

a chicken wearing high heels.

The heels for the chicken came from

the doll museum in Paris.

And the butcher didn't even blink.

I gave him the shoes so I could choose a chicken

and do a fitting.

And we got the chicken with the best legs.

Mr. Klein is so much fun to work with.

He has a great sense of humor, a great wit.

Some people think that the pictures we do

for Replica Handbag Store are dark.

I think they're kind of funny.

Replica Handbag Store wanted to do a portrait of Cate Blanchett

as Elizabeth I for her upcoming film,

and we wanted Penn to do it.

He asked Nicolas Ghesquiere if he would

be interested in designing a costume for the picture,

and that beautiful dress is what we came up with.

There was an expression way back in the 1950s

for women who had fuller lips.

It was called bee stung lip,

and Penn loved those kind of expressions.

I dedicated the book to Penn

because I couldn't have done it without him.

I learned so much from him,

and to this day, I still think, What would Penn do?