It seems the Anne Hathaway cover shoot for the August 2025 issue of Vogue US [IG] was emotional for many people. Last night AOC dug deeply into the sentiments and memories of stylist Tabitha Simmons, who explained how the event was a full circle one for her.

Simmons got her first big break from Lee Alexander McQueen, when he was creative director of Givenchy. Now she was styling Hathaway in the first major fashion magazine editorial of Givenchy under the direction of McQueen’s former head of women’s and nearly indespensable right arm Sarah Burton.

An Emotional Fashion Shoot All Around

Actor Anne Hathaway was similarily sentimental about the shoot by Annie Leibovitz at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and nearby outdoors shot in Central Park.

Hathaway said: “Being photographed by Annie Leibovitz in my beloved NY wearing Sarah Burton for @givenchy was a poetic joy beyond words. I will never forget how everyone made me feel like a work of art those magical days. Thank you so much to the one and only Anna Wintour for thinking of me for this cover, and for making all of it possible.”

Leibovitz [IG] details the art used in the photoshoot, and AOC responded to Simmons tease on the scandal surrounding one of the paintings, confirming her comment about a strap out of place on Hathaway being part of a late 19th century scandal. That’s another short post about the artwork, the female subject of the John Singer Sargent masterpiece, and the redo required to calm the clamoring crowds.

In her interview with Maya Singer, Anne Hathaway reflects on the most challenging role of her career. That would be a cross-between Gaga and Taylor Swift — an important talent ‘having a moment’, one grounded not in light but darkness. . . a darkness so intense that her ‘Mother Mary’ character leaves her tour in process.

Hathaway searches for her old friend, played by Michaela Coel, the person who helped craft her dominating public persona in the first place.

Hathaway explained to Singer that her role in ‘Mother Mary’ has been so demanding that “I had to become a beginner.”

“The humility of that—showing up every day knowing you’re going to suck. And it has to be okay. You’re not ‘bad.’ You’re just a beginner. Getting to that mindset—I had to shed some things that were hard to shed. It was welcome. But it was hard, the way transformational experiences can be hard.”

Singer describes the movie as very weird, but she is meticulous in narrating Hathaway’s intense struggle to thrive in it. Upon entering a very deep tunnel with ‘Mother Mary’ and emerging from the battle to both survive and excel in her most powerful way, she ultimately gives birth to herself. Read on at Vogue.