What better time to try something larger than life than the September issue? For Nicolas Ghesquière, that meant creating a miniature Louis Vuitton collection of couture-like caliber, exclusively for Vogue. And who better to wear these one-of-a-kind garments than our cover star, and the designer’s longtime friend, Emma Stone?

“Whatever he does is special and surprising and exquisite,” Grace Coddington, the shoot’s fashion editor, says of Ghesquière, “but this was somewhat on another level because it was couture, which is something he hasn’t tried before.” While Ghesquière worked closely with Vogue to bring the looks to life for Stone’s Avignon shoot, the looks came, as Coddington puts it, from “him and a dream.”

Ghesquière created six distinct, handcrafted looks for Stone’s cover shoot—six different characters for her to embody. “Who will this be?” asks Stone, dressed in a beaded, high-neck dress with draped, wing-like sleeves. “The idea was to imagine she was a charismatic leader of a ballet academy,” Ghesquière says of the dress, aptly dubbed “The Ballerina.” “She is a great dancer,” he adds of Stone, “I wanted to express that in the movement.”

Also among the duo’s roster of characters: “The Driver,” a leather jumpsuit meant for boundary-breakers, which Stone wore to galivant on the roof of the Palais des Papes; “The Innocent,” a knit jumpsuit with tiers of ruffles, represents Stone’s open-hearted approach to acting, namely her Oscar-winning role as Bella in in Poor Things; “The Host” a black playsuit with a sculptural sweetheart bust, casts the actor as the host of an imaginary cabaret, inspired by Ghesquière and Stone’s real-life friendship.

For the pair, the shoot is a full-circle moment, another chapter in their long history. “The things that he’s designed took me through my wedding day, took me through big moments in my life,” Stone says of her long friendship with Ghesquière. “It feels like I always get to have a piece of him with me.”

Watch on as we go behind the scenes of Emma Stone’s September cover shoot.

Director: Nikki Petersen
Interviewer: Chioma Nnadi
Directors of Photography: Louise Bernard Pallas, Fyras Slaiman
Editors: Katie Wolford, Evan Allan
Creative Producer: Gabrielle Reich
Associate Producer: Lea Donenberg
Associate Producers, On Set: Megan Sinanis, Virginie Kateeb
Gaffer: Sylvain Gabayet
Audio: David Amsalem Albertini
Production Coordinator: Tanía Jones
Production Manager: Kristen Helmick
Line Producer: Natasha Soto-Albors
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
Post Production Coordinator: Holly Frew
Colorist: Oliver Eid
Supervising Editor: Kameron Key
Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch
Entertainment Director: Sergio Kletnoy
Executive Producer: Rahel Gebreyes
Senior Director, Video: Romy van den Broeke
Senior Director, Programming: Linda Gittleson
VP, Video Programming: Thespena Guatieri
Images Courtesy Of: Joan Marcus, Irving Penn
Cover Photography By: Jamie Hawkesworth