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This past december, all of sudden, the little miracles that make life happen, happened: Naturally shy Chloë Sevigny said yes to my idea of posing nude for Inez Van Lamsveerde and Vinoodh Matadin for the first time in her photographic career. Two of my favorite American artists, Terry Richardson and Richard Prince, not only worked on a fashion shoot together, it was the first time an artist and a photographer collaborated together in a glossy magazine. I went to the shoot of Yves Saint Laurent’s new campaign, photographed by Juergen Teller at The Crillon, and the Polaroïds were so good that I got the idea to publish the entire campaign. After three cancellations I finally had lunch with John Galliano to do an interview about his last show. I’d also been waiting a year to interview Ingrid Caven, when finally, the day before Christmas, I spent an entire afternoon with her. She asked me to bring the portrait I’d had Juergen Teller take of her in YSL leopard coat, which she didn’t like at all. But she surprised me by offering several of her own pictures, which included a Polaroid of herself and her ex-husband, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, one with Helmut Newton, and a Polaroïd I’d taken of her and Juergen… But one of the best things was to have Carine Roitfeld on the cover–especially after she told me she brings good luck…

But why the editor-in-chief of French Vogue on the cover of Purple fashion, wearing a faded-out old T-shirt her son had drawn on when he was 12 years old? First, I like her curtain of hair. Plus I love the intensity of her gaze and her unabashed sexual appeal and am crazy about her unfailing instincts about style. But best of all I’m a total believer in the way she incarnates–better than any model–a passionate conviction for fashion as an art form instead of an imitation. For those reasons this has been one of the most exciting issues I have ever produced.

— OLIVIER ZAHM