This photograph, from the New York Times in 2012, sent me off thinking about what coaches might learn from fashion editors at Vogue magazine.
The picture, taken by Annie Leibovitz, was part of Vogue’s 120th anniversary issue celebrations and brought together past and current editors.
In the New York Times article, Eric Wilson writes about a documentary, In Vogue: The Editor’s Eye, that “takes a look at some of the world’s most influential fashion images as conceived by the magazine’s iconic fashion editors”.
I was struck by his observation:
No one said working at Vogue was going to be a walk in the park, but this show makes the job look as if it should come with hazard pay.
Apart from the hazard suggestion, what struck me about the Vogue editors was their eye for a visual aesthetic and their confidence in composition. I take this to be the essence of coaching too.
Anna Wintour’s first cover as editor in November 1988 is a great example of innovation.
What none of us expected was to run that picture on the cover, least of all the magazine’s printers, who called up and asked with some consternation, “Has there been a mistake?”
She added:
I had just looked at that picture and sensed the winds of change. And you can’t ask for more from a cover image than that.
After following up on the story behind the 2012 picture, it struck me that coaches’ continuing learning might be stimulated by going to a fashion house rather than another sporting organisation.
I think In Vogue: The Editor’s Eye might prove to be an excellent pre-coaching course resource to stimulate conversations about and reflections on the coach’s eye.
There is a discussion to be had about the courage of one’s convictions too.
Photo Credit
What do you mean ‘cut’? (Annie Leibovitz, New York Times)
