June 29, 2011 |
FROM THE VAULT (WINTER 2010)
ANGELA BLECHSCHMIDT: EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GERMAN VOGUE (1989-2003)
She lives in a Bavarian castle in Potsdam, on the recommendation of her friend Wolfgang Joop.
She moved there when she stepped down from her position as editor-in-chief of German Vogue, a position she had held for 20 years.
She sips on Campari Orange, drives a big, black, fast German car and has a well-documented love of oversized diamonds. Oh, and did we mention the hair? Daphne Guinness, eat your heart out.
Angelica Blechschmidt is, to put it bluntly, the living embodiment of everything you would imagine a Vogue editrix to be.
After studying at the Hamburg School of Fashion, she first dipped her toe into the world of magazines as a graphic designer at both Constance and Brigitte. German Vogue had experienced a short-lived spell of nine months in 1928, but was relaunched in 1979. Blechschmidt joined the magazine in 1980, rising from art director to editor-in-chief in 1989, the magazine’s 10th anniversary. During her tenure in this role, she doubled circulation, developed a slight case of workaholism, rarely leaving the office before midnight, and indulged in her hobby of documenting every fashion show and party she attended, with a camera never far from her hand.
She has never felt the need to reveal her age, though. It’s a closely guarded secret, known only by her and the Passport Office.
by Natalie Dembinska
