There are hardly any fashion jobs as stressful as being Editor-in-Chief of Vogue magazine.

The magazine was first founded in America in 1892 and introduced to the UK in 1916. It currently has 18 editions globally with plans for a Dutch edition announced previous month.

The New York Times journalist Caroline Weber has called it "The world's most influential fashion magazine" and UK Vogue is the most moneymaking British magazine. To be an Editor-in-Chief it takes someone pretty special.

There are a few editors who will go down in history as being particularly good at all of the above. These women have not only produced an unforgettable take on Vogue, they become more than a woman at a desk, or a front row fixture. They create distinctive silhouettes, supply bloggers with endless quotes and images, put outfits together in a way that is exclusive to them and much more...

Over the next hardly any weeks we'll be outlining the present ladies in charge of the world's largest selling Vogues, this week British Vogue Editor, Alexandra Shulman.

Alexandra Shulman, editor-in-chief at British Vogue since 1992

"I haven't ever tried to be a sort of perfect, cool character who doesn't have the troubles that everyone else has" - Alexandra Shulman.

Alexandra Shulman has been the editor of British Vogue since 1992. Running from the headquarters on the fifth floor of Hanover Square, she is known for cool acumen, as well as having the expertise to navigate the tricky way between couture collections and high street taste and giving British Vogue readers plenty of fantasy as well as realism in the magazine's content.

This focus on the 'real' side of life, that a woman aspires to more than flouncing about in haute couture is no doubt a product of the fact that Shulman's background does not lie in fashion, as she says herself:

"Vogue is not my personal taste, really. I think of it more as a kind of newspaper. It's reporting on what's out there, to some level, with me editing."

Since becoming Editor at the 95-year-old publication the readership has risen to above a million, a rise which has been attributed to collector's issues and cover stars ranging from Florence Welch, Victoria Beckham and Kate Moss to Adele and Gisele. Shulman has also been personally credited with nurturing the careers of photographers such as Mario Testino and Tim Walker.

Alexandra has worked with Vogue publishing house Condé Nast since 1982, beginning on Tatler prior to going on to become features editor of Vogue, followed by editing GQ Magazine and subsequently returning to Vogue as editor. This hard work and long career saw her awarded an OBE in 2005 for her services to the magazine trade.

Her career aspirations were inspired from a young age as both her parents were journalists and she was in addition formerly married to another writer, Paul Spike, with whom she has a teenage son.

Click here to read our profile of Japanese Vogue editor-at-large, Anna Dello Russo.