confidence women.

Byline: Anna Wintour

When we considered which face belonged on this month's cover-this is our annual Power Issue-the name on the lips of my editors was Jennifer Hudson. There is no more inspiring example of the power of talent and tenacity than her rise from American Idol reject to Golden Globe winner. As Andre Leon Talley learned when he dressed her for the awards season ("Bringing Down the House"), she's also a style icon whose happiness in her own skin is something we can draw strength from. The question of body image is a current one, and I can't think of a more compelling and beautiful argument for the proposition that great fashion looks great on women of all sizes than the sight of Hudson in a Vera Wang dress on the red carpet.

The model Natalia Vodianova is another woman whose charm and determination are as empowering as her beauty (and incidentally, she's participating in the CFDA's forthcoming body-image symposium). Her latest project is a charity that builds playgrounds for needy children in Russia. Working with the visionary architect Adam Kalkin, she's making a huge personal effort to intervene and claim a stake in her native society. She is truly a super-role model-somebody for Agyness Deyn, the new face whom Patrick Demarchelier has shot for "Perfect Ten," to take direction from. I've always believed that the great models develop the power to exert an individual influence-moral, aesthetic, commercial-on the culture.

It's a pleasure, too, when the reverse occurs: that is,

when someone like Ivanka Trump or the Chicago-based equities trader Jenny Just feels able to step boldly between her professional world and the world of fashion. It used to be that businesswomen were afraid of undermining their gravitas by expressing themselves through style. These two dissolve any conflict between looking good and ...