Once, early in her tenure as editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour sat next to a man on an airplane from London back to the US. They struck up a conversation, and when she told him what she did for a living, he made the passing remark that, “Of course Vogue could never be Madonna.” “And that was like a lightbulb going off,” she recalled recently. “Well, of course, Vogue should be Madonna.”
That interaction led to the Material Girl’s first Vogue cover, for the May 1989 issue. Stripped of her Lower East Side party-girl affects and photographed by Patrick Demarchelier, she was posed in a pool, fresh-faced, looking over her shoulder—a striking new look for an emerging superstar who commanded the world’s attention for her eclectic, overly-accessorized look. In the years since, Vogue US and the Queen of Pop have forged an enduring relationship, including four covers: May 1989, October 1992, October 1996, and, most recently, August 2005 (the number is much higher when taking into account global editions). In that story, she was profiled by our own Hamish Bowles as she settled into her new life of domesticity in London and the English countryside, as wife to the film director Guy Richie.
“Who would have thunk it?” she told Bowles. “The last thing I thought I would do is marry some laddish, shooting, pubgoing nature lover—and the last thing he thought he was going to do was marry some cheeky girl from the Midwest who doesn't take no for an answer!”
This week, Madge will release Confessions II, the anticipated follow-up to her popular dance album Confessions on a Dancefloor from 2005. It goes without saying but bears repeating: there truly is no other Madonna. From those early days of pop stardom in her tulle tutus, lingerie bodices, and bangle-adorned arms, through her many, many eras (oftentimes savvily coordinating with a new album release), she has completely rewritten the playbook for pop stardom and celebrity writ large. From her Jean-Paul Gaultier conical bras to her Tom Ford-Gucci era silken shirts and flared pants, to her rhinestone cowboy westernwear, Madonna swaps out fashion personas like a snake sheds its skin.
There is a wild streak of renegade spirit in everything Madonna does—be it skip through genres in her daring music career or go full-speed-ahead in her approach to style. You never know what you’re going to get from the Material Girl, only knowing that whatever it is, it will get the world talking.
For this edition of Vogue Nostalgia, we’re dipping back into our last up-close-and-personal encounter with the megastar. Join us for a visit to her life in England, trying on her most shocking role to date: doting wife and mother. And yet, she was still the feisty, fashionable, fascinating creature she always was and remains to this day. Enjoy!
