Whatever happened to the Vogue Supplement?

I've been doing some fall cleaning this past week and I came across my Vogue archives from roughly 2000-2003. I've taken great pleasure in re-reading all of my favorite articles and, of course, looking at how the masthead has changed over the years. I'm not sure if anyone pays quite as much attention to the masthead as I do, but I love seeing how the magazine and the writers themselves have blossomed.

Anyhow, in sorting through these old issues of Vogue, I also came across several supplemental issues to Vogue. Unfortunately, there is not a year or month on the supplements, so I can't pinpoint the exact date for you. (A couple of the supplements were available back before Stephanie Winston Wolkoff was the Director of Special Events, if that tells you anything.) Long-time subscribers to Vogue will probably recall the supplement with the Beckhams gracing the cover (one of my favorites since I love, love, love Victoria Bechkam!), the one with Karolina Kurkova titled "The Winning Hand," and some might even remember the nondescript cover titled "Entertaining from Maine to Moomba."

I really adore these supplements. When they were issued, they were only available to subscribers, which was a real treat. Other magazines not only provide similarly coveted supplements, but some magazines even provide different, artsier covers for their subscribers. Both Elle and Harper's Bazaar do this with the cover for the subscribers usually having a model, as opposed to the celebrity of the month. I consider this to be an enormous perk and something I wish Vogue would emulate. The supplement was really the only perk available to subscribers, aside from the low price of receiving the magazine in your mailbox, as opposed to the newsstand.

I came across a few sartorial delights in the supplements. Though there weren't any layouts in the short supplements, there were excellent highlights from the runways, behind-the-scenes photos, and designer spotlights. One of the supplements had a short article on the opening of the posh Ikram boutique in Chicago. Who could have predicted the overwhelming success of Ikram? Well, Vogue, of course. And who could forget the screw-heeled shoes that graced, er, troubled the Alexander McQueen runways in 2001? Well, there was a fun photo to remind readers of those terrifyingly dangerous shoes that only Kate Moss was brave enough to wear. Vogue wittingly declared that those shoes deserved the "Most Dangerous Footwear" award. Touche.

The ad campaigns were pretty thrilling, too. These supplements were obviously printed during the height of the careers of models Anouk Lepere (one of my favorites!), Caroline Ribeiro, Maggie Rizer, and right around the beginning of the careers of Karolina Kurkova, Carmen Kass (my all-time favorite model), and Gisele.

I wonder if it would be possible for Anna to resurrect the Vogue Supplement? We subscribers would love the perk of having a limited-edition keepsake again. European and Asian editions of the magazine still provide supplements, often big and glossy additional photospreads, too. It would be easy to say that the supplement was eliminated because of the recession, but that's hardly the case. I couldn't find a supplement past 2004, so the supplement's disappearance had nothing to do with the current recession. I am not sure why it vanished, but I would welcome its return.

So, Anna, if you're reading this, will you please bring back the Vogue Supplement?

** Note on the photo: I couldn't find an image of one of the Vogue Supplements, so I went with Karolina's first Vogue cover instead.**