The fashion world laid bare in ‘Gold Dust Nation’ from British Vogue’s Alexandra Shulman and Fiona Golfar

Bad Wolf today announces a major new drama series conceived by former British Vogue Editors Alexandra Shulman and Fiona Golfar.

Telling the story of the ‘90s through the prism of a British monthly fashion magazine, Gold Dust Nation shines on a period of time in which the world was turned on its head – from Thatcher to Blair and from Perestroika to Prada in a country emerging from grunge and recession to a new world order reflected in the politics of the front row.

YBAs, New Labour, Britpop and the dot-com boom are about to set the world alight against a background of new feminism, body image, age discrimination, diversity and substance abuse in a series that has fashion as its muse.

Bad Wolf recently produced the hit Sky series A Discovery of Witches and are currently filming the first of two seasons of His Dark Materials for the BBC and HBO. Founder Jane Tranter will act as Executive Producer for the series.

Gold Dust Nation focuses on the lives of a collection of characters working in the orbit of an internationally famous fashion magazine; photographers, stylists, journalists, PRs, hairdressers, designers and interns in a pre-digital world.

Alexandra Shulman and Fiona Golfar worked on British Vogue for twenty-five years. They have seen the fashion industry transformed from a relatively niche, luxury business into a huge global enterprise which is now a part of everybody’s vocabulary and has global interest. Shulman and Golfar know more than anyone else about the players, pitfalls, privileges and politics in this glamorous world of smoke and mirrors.

Alexandra was Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue throughout this time and while there oversaw the rise of the superwaifs and celebrity culture, the globalisation of the fashion industry, the rebirth of London as a major fashion hub and the introduction of the digital era.

As Editor-at-Large Fiona has been on the ground, shooting, styling, and writing stories that involve fashion, lifestyle, arts and emotional elements whilst also acting as a human guinea pig for the magazine.

Together they have an unrivalled knowledge of what it is like to be right at the centre of the fashion world but also what it is to be women in this workplace. Their stories relay the professional, the personal and the dramatic and merge the exotic glamour of fashion with the reality and down-to-earth dilemmas that many women face. The clothes may be better but the problems remain the same in the fashion world. While the backdrop is glossy, the everyday lives of the central characters are moving and identifiable to all.

Alexandra Shulman said: “It’s wonderful to have the opportunity to bring to life the realities of the world of fashion publishing in a series that will have total authenticity. We will be able to showcase the real issues and real stories that occur when you combine huge creativity with human emotions and dilemmas set in a backdrop of the changing times of recent history.”

Fiona Golfar said: “It’s very exciting to have the opportunity to be working with Bad Wolf to bring to life a world we know so well. At the heart of it our show is about a group of people finding their place in this world of perceived glamour. It is a show about love and loyalty, treachery and creativity, beauty and body image. Can these co-exist when there is so much at stake in the highly charged world of fashion magazines? Between us Alexandra and I have seen it all, from the boardroom to the bedroom, there is never a dull moment in the world of fashion.”

Bad Wolf’s Jane Tranter said: “Alexandra and Fiona’s brilliance is that they have captured the mood of a country pivoting on its heel and heading for one on the most dynamic and contentious periods of British cultural and political history. The creativity, flair and irreverence that made them such a force in the publishing world runs through every ounce of Gold Dust Nation.”