BLOW-UP: When Liz Tilberis Transformed Bazaar – Details, episodes & analysis

a six-part documentary podcast about fashion's forgotten queen and the biggest moment in Nineties fashion.  

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In 1992, Vogue was, as it is today, the global fashion authority, and Anna Wintour was its already-famous leader. But an upset—to this day, the only one of Wintour’s reign— was in the offing. Just a few days into the New Year, Hearst announced they were reviving the long-comatose Harper’s Bazaar, which was once Vogue’s greatest rival. And they were bringing in Liz Tilberis, the warm white-haired size-twelve editor of British Vogue—and Anna Wintour’s former second in command—to lead the charge. In “Enter Elegance,” we tell the story of the editorial dream team that Liz gathered to her side, the super-secret September launch, and the magazine cover that shook the industry and announced the new Nineties minimalism. 

This episode includes our memories as assistants at Liz Tilberis’s new Bazaar and conversations with former Bazaar staff, including creative director Fabien Baron and editors Paul Cavaco, Tonne Goodman, and Richard Sinnott. Plus, Linda Evangelista, Isaac Mizrahi, and Liz’s best friend, former Vogue creative director Grace Coddington.

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Liz Tilberis was nice. Legendarily nice. People claimed that when she fired an editor, they left feeling they’d won something. (They usually left with a chic little gift, too.) In this episode, we explore the way that Liz’s natural warmth and ability to charm assistants and royalty alike made her not only something of a unicorn in fashion but fueled her ascent from Sixties London art student to editor of British Vogue and contributed to the unlikely success of her Harper’s Bazaar. 

With Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Grace Coddington, and Patrick Jephson, former private secretary to Princess Diana. 

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Less than two years into Bazaar’s triumphant return, the magazine’s spare sculptural look was being imitated everywhere. Bazaar had, practically overnight, defined a new visual landscape. But as the competition scrambled to copy Fabien’s innovative use of typography and negative space, Liz and Fab kept moving, mixing supermodels and street photographers, grunge and glam, punk and posh. In this episode, we talk to Fabien Baron, Paul Cavaco, Linda Evangelista, Tonne Goodman, Elissa Santisi, David Sims, Richard Sinnott, Mario Sorrenti, and Amber Valletta about some of the most important fashion shoots of the Nineties, stories still widely referenced today. 

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When Liz Tilberis relaunched Harper's Bazaar in 1992, the fact that she was Anna Wintour's former right-hand—and her polar opposite—fueled press stories about a feud between fashion's top two editors. Some of it was drummed up, and some of it wasn't. 

In this episode, cohosts Dennis Golonka and Cynthia True talk to friends and colleagues, including Grace Coddington, Paul Cavaco, Tonne Goodman, Susan Magrino, and Isaac Mizrahi, about the truth of Anna and Liz's complicated relationship and about how Liz remains Anna's only real rival to this day. 

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For the first three years of Bazaar's comeback, Hearst Magazines gave Liz Tilberis and her team carte blanche. But by 1995, the magazine world was getting leaner, and Liz was under pressure to cut costs and kick up newsstand sales. Her solution? Celebrity. And lots of it. Suddenly, actresses, rock stars, and royalty graced the cover almost as often as supermodels. Inside, you were as likely to see Pamela Anderson shot by Peter Lindbergh as Amber Valletta. But Liz's cleverest use of celebrity came when she co-chaired the Met Gala in 1996; she created a slightly surreal Christian Dior tribute (with his best dresses suspended mid-air) and invited the world's biggest celebrities. Her guest of honor was Princess Diana, whose much-photographed presence that night put the Met Gala on the map—and Bazaar at the center of the chat.  

In this episode, we discuss some great BTS moments with Linda Evangelista, former Bazaar editors Paul Cavaco and Richard Sinnott, Liz's former publicist Susan Magrino, and former assistant Stephanie Albertson. 

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For the first time in decades, the supergroup that made Harper's Bazaar the coolest fashion magazine of the Nineties—Creative Director Fabien Baron, Co-Fashion Directors Paul Cavaco and Tonne Goodman, and Accessories Director Richard Sinnott—reunites with former colleagues and co-hosts Cynthia True and Dennis Golonka to talk about how working with editor-in-chief Liz Tilberis was lightning-in-a-bottle.

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Subscribe to listen to our bonus Q&As with the models, celebrities, stylists, photographers, and, of course, the editors who made Harper's Bazaar the hippest fashion magazine of the Nineties. Guests so far include Christy Turlington; Mario Sorrenti; Daryl Hannah; Amber Valletta; Wendy Goodman, Design Editor of New York magazine; Andrea Linett, co-founder of Lucky; Jaime Perlman, editor-in-chief of More or Less; and Patrick Jephson, former private secretary to Princess Diana. 

We'll be dropping two episodes per month! 

Our six main episodes remain free on all platforms. 

Buy Me a Coffee is a lovely way to support our independently produced show. We always need caffeine! Thank you thank you!