Derek Zoolander’s Giving Blue Steel Realness on the Cover of Vogue

Lauren Tuck
·News Editor
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Ben Stiller as Derek Zoolander with Penelope Cruz as Valentina on the February 2016 cover of Vogue. Photo: Courtesy (Photography by Annie Liebovitz)

Derek Zoolander might have lost Model of the Year in 2000 to his nemesis-turned-BFF Hansel, but there’s no denying that 2016 is all about the man that made Blue Steel famous. Appearing on the February cover of Vogue wearing a blue Dolce & Gabbana suit covered in birds, Zoolander gives his best duck face while posing with Valentina, otherwise known as Penelope Cruz, his new partner in crime in the forthcoming Zoolander 2.

The co-stars, who can be seen fighting off an evil force that is killing off the most beautiful people in the world one by one (Justin Bieber included!) in theaters on February 14, were shot by Annie Liebovitz wearing amazing designer clothes (and even being fitted for Balenciaga duds by Alexander Wang himself) and posing with the real-life top models of the moment Jourdan Dunn, Gigi Hadid, and Joan Smalls.

Cruz, wearing Altuzarra, steps behind a vintage camera to capture Stiller, err Zoolander, as a horse wearing Roberto Cavalli leather pants. Photo: Courtesy (Photography by Annie Liebovitz)

While the photoshoot took place in character (“it’s hard for me to not do it when somebody wants to take a picture with me. I just go into it, like a trained dog.” the actor said), Ben Stiller shed his alter-ego for an interview with the magazine. Unlike Derek, the real guy behind the role doesn’t get pampered while wearing a Tom Ford robe or run errands on a motorcycle in a Saint Laurent leather jacket. Instead, his uniform is pretty standard: “I’ve become a person who wears the exact same thing,” he admitted.

Zoolander wearing a Tom Ford robe with Gigi Hadid (in Oscar de la Renta), Jourdan Dunn (in Carolina Herrera), and Joan Smalls (in Oscar de la Renta). Photo: Courtesy (Photography by Annie Liebovitz)

But that doesn’t mean Stiller wasn’t able to pull some major designers to appear in the flick. “I was thrilled to say yes to Ben,” Marc Jacobs, who appears in the movie as himself, said. “I thought the first one was hilarious.” Valentino’s Maria Grazia Churi and Pierpaolo Piccoli are obviously in it as well, seeing as the movie’s sequel was announced on their Paris Fashion Week runway in what will probably go down as the best final walk of all time. Kanye West, Kim Kardashian West, Naomi Campbell, Karlie Kloss, Anna Wintour, and many more fashion people are set to make cameos, but there’s one guy Stiller regrets not being able to cajole: Karl Lagerfeld. “He’s iconic,” Stiller says. “It breaks my heart. Maybe if we ever do another…”

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