October promises to be a monster month for Vogue Australia.
The new October edition of the magazine hits newsstands on Monday, September 30. It arrives off the back of the hefty annual September edition which this year delivered subscribers another chunky book running to 232 pages. (Including an impressive 50 pages of ads at the front of the book before the content starts.)
But for October a star, as in movie star, has aligned. That star is Kate Winslet.
The British movie icon has a movie released late in the month, Lee, in which she portrays the journalist and Vogue photojournalist Lee Miller.
Sensing an opportunity, the editors at Vogue Australia have secured a front cover plus interview and fashion shoot with the actress. In addition, Vogue Australia has also secured an audience with Winslet during an Australian visit to promote the movie just days before it hits cinema screens.
A poster for the movie on a London train station
Winslet will speak at a Vogue Australia event with editorial director Edwina McCann on October 21.
If all that’s not enough activity for the month, the annual Vogue Fashion’s Night Out will be held in Sydney on Thursday, October 17.
Poster for Australian release of Lee – coming to cinemas October 24
Vogue Australia’s connection with Kate Winslet
The connection between Kate Winslet and Vogue Australia goes much deeper than a promo for a movie.
The co-writer of the screenplay for Lee is former Vogue Australia editor Marion Hume who is also a friend of Winslet’s. Seizing the opportunity, the Australian edition of the famous fashion brand secured Hume to interview Winslet for their October cover story.
Marion Hume with Kate Winslet on the set of Lee Miller
In the new edition of Vogue Australia, Hume explains:
Kate Winslet is teaching me how to speak Australian. Which is ironic, given she’s an English rose and I’m a proud Australian citizen (though British-born and back in the UK). “Look. It’s in my throat like that. It’s really right there,” says this queen of accents, pointing to her larynx and sounding like a true blue Aussie. “Whereas,” her voice shifts, “if I’m doing New Zealand, it’s chewier, more nasal. See, the whole voice comes up into my face.”
Kate is not showing off. Instead, she is giving me a masterclass that is long overdue. I moved to Sydney to edit Vogue way back in 1997, yet could never, despite best efforts, pass for Australian-born. Kate, who I already knew, sounded like a local when she turned up to film Holy Smoke a year later. (She gives due credit for that transformation to dialect coach Victoria Mielewska, who also worked with her on the 2015 Australian film The Dressmaker.)
“Relax,” Kate prompts me now. “It comes from quite far back in, really soft, not that strong.” I do as instructed to utter my favourite-ever Kate Winslet opening line, spoken as Tilly Dunnage in The Dressmaker on her return to an outback town. Then Kate does it. Wipes the floor with my try. “I’m back, you bastards.”
The Kate Winslet Vogue Australia feature was photographed by Annemarieke Van Drimmelen and styled by Kate Phelan.
See also: Sydney shopping spree: Vogue Australia and American Express celebrate Fashion’s Night Out
