PICTURE THIS.

Byline: Anna Wintour

Lust last week I stopped by a cocktail party for a group of Columbia School of Journalism students and had the pleasure of talking to them about the professional world they will soon enter. The question I'm always asked is, how do I stay excited at Vogue after so many years? My answer is, there's nothing like working with the most talented people around to keep things interesting. Vogue attracts the best-the best writers, the best photographers-and it is my privilege as the editor to collaborate with them each month.

Of course, in today's quickly changing magazine market, the relevance of creative talent is increasingly open to question. I understand the impulse to look at paparazzi pictures of celebrities going about their business; but these images, which are so prevalent at the moment, have very little to do with photography. What sets Vogue apart is its continuing dedication to the artistic possibilities of editorial photography. I see it as my mission to continue a tradition that, as Penelope Rowlands's wonderful new biography of former editor (1921-32) Carmel Snow reveals (page 714), is synonymous with Vogue.

Carmel Snow worked with the likes of Steichen and Beaton and Man Ray. I have the honor of assigning stories to their equivalents today. This month's issue, which celebrates the most special and statement-making looks of the season, is a wonderful showcase of the visual talents that this magazine fosters. Annie Leibovitz, working with Sarah Jessica Parker and editor Camilla Nickerson, produces a ghostly and moving farewell to the Plaza Hotel (where Parker had celebrated her fortieth) and simultaneously brings to life an alternative approach to red-carpet dressing (page 702). Who else but Annie would take a million pillows and create a fluffy avalanche as a backdrop for a sleek tux? Who else but Annie would have delighted me with a surprise cameo from Tony Bennett?

Steven Klein's brilliance is evident in his two shoots. The achievement of his story of a Chekhovian heroine in a surf-and-turf idyll (page 684) is that, first, it was dreamed up overnight after weather foiled the original story idea. Second, he and Grace Coddington accomplish the very difficult feat of making restrained, covered-up fashion look sexy and modern. This is quite an achievement at a time when our eye is so drawn to bare skin as the sign of femininity and desirability. Klein's second shoot, about uniquely chic coats (page 760), displays his ability to create a relevant mood, a touch of narrative (here, Fellini and the seedy glamour of Cinecitta), and, most important, a clear view of the fashion.

The other Steven-Meisel-also gives us two shoots. He first produced the "Magnificent Seven" pictures of the best clothes of our most influential designers (page 660). As you'll see, it's a wonderfully pure series of images that consciously mark a point in fashion history. When the time came to discuss his second story, I told him ...