[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=+1]W OCT 2005 karen by M&M; gemma by luchford; kate hudson.[/SIZE][/FONT]
W OCT 2005 karen by M&M; gemma by luchford; kate hudson.
BEST EDIT: Karen Elson shot by mert/marcus. cool 60s english bedsit style hair by guido. those of you like myself who find karen exceptionally beautiful will love her look here. her face and milk-white skin look as great as ever and there are 4 delicious topless images, in one her nipple is so erect and very chewy. these shots are set at some seaside locale, it could be brighton UK but i am guessing its atlantic city NJ or coney island! a few years ago US Vogue had a similar theme with karen shot by tim walker [I think?} as she visited the brighton seaside of her youth. honestly the vogue edit was better. there is a moving wistfullness to these pics, m&m have been studying wm eggleston i think, the colors are heavily saturated here, deep rich reds, blues, but it feels more like lonely sad 'last day of summer' as opposed to vogue's earlier happy carnival story and karen in bathing suit. the 60s vibe is present, these images could have come from a film like 'the L Shaped room' [david sims had a similar bedsit vibe in W a few months back with more of a teddy boy fantasy]. alex white styled smartly as ever, prada coat,. ODR dress, ralph pink twinset, miu cape [so 60s!]. this is an effective melancholy seaside edit with karen gorgeous and i love the intense colors. this is the best W has this month M&M have been shooting some really strong pieces for W this year & karen is so beautiful & so sensuous, and topless throughout. rating 8 of 10.
2nd best edit. gemma shot by glen luchford. a dreamy watery vibe, gemma looks to be swimming in a fwe pics but it cld also be special effects. luchford does some great work in bazaar but this story falls short. I love gemma shes in so many great edits. I thought her paris vogue 'bad little girl with dolls' edit was 1 of the years best. karl templer styled he's usually great but only the gucci look really succeeds, other good ones incl lanvin & D&G, slightly hard to see clothes with obscuring watery theme. [water theme should be used with BIKINI story, duuh!!] gemma's great but other than her, and compared even with M&M's karen story, let alone your standard brilliant W/gemma shoot, this is somewhat disappointing- or just OK. rating 6.7 of 10.
WORST EDIT. Sorrenti shoots Freja. This might be the worst edit of 2005. Freja is an interesting new face, but youd never know it from the ghastly kabuki death mask shes wearing here, all white with black drawn eyebrows. Ive seen better makeup at a wrestling match or a kiss concert. and its not make up woman linda cantello's fault Im sure she was just following sorrenti's twisted psycho idea. Lori goldstein styled why does freja have all this padding on her aass? is this some weird anti-model ana/ED joke? freja has been made into some manga cartoon-scary fantasy. otherwise its a typical sorrenti studio shoot. the clothes are good, blass, lagerfeld, prada. but sorrenti turned freja into a scary monster and fuucked with her lovely model form with grotesque aass padding. sorrenti is capable of traditional, pretty work like his excellent W daria rainforest shoot a few months back. but for some reason he decided to torture and warp freja and the fine clothes [and this Oct w] suffer for it. I really wonder about sorrenti's mental or [chemicized] state at times: is he just a schizo artist who gives you worldclass work one day & then a hateful mess like this the next day, or is he just a sadistic photog who delights in torturing a fresh young model like freja here for kicks? or both? anyway freja deserves better as do these clothes styled by goldstein. rating 2.5 of 10. sorrenti needs another shrink and better meds.
COVER: kate hudson by thompson. thompson's full hudson cali flower power edit a few years ago for W was 1 of the best actress edits of this century. this cover is not at that transcendant level but its a sharp chaplinesque sexy kate hudson in chanel shirt & tie & bikini bottom. Thompson's cover work is better than the alexia s' hudson images inside.
EDIT: kate hudson home feature shot by alexia s. alexia is an adequate home & celeb photog, there are some ok pics of kate in panties and her artifacts. but a greater photog makes home/environment images more revealing of the subject- think bruce weber on liz taylor & others, or the tom ford homepiece in W recently. these are just random pics of kate at home & some ok items like guitar and native indiian bric-a-brac. Im sure kevin west's article is good but i dont care enough about hudson to read it. decent home snaps but again I expect even more from a top drawer picture book like w. rating 4 of 10.
VERDICT: The karen Last day of summer M&M edit with heavily-saturated eggleston-like colors is a keeper. the rest of the edits are below W's usually high standard. Also a quick look at the rest of the book found less interesting reading/pics than usual except for a few 'swan' socials who look as ridicilous as ever. Id say make sure you find the karen pics by M&M. otherwise gemma & freja can be used so much better elsewhere. Im sure the Nov W will redeem its usual lofty status. ,. Until then, aside from karen & M&M I rate this issue THUMBS in the MIDDLE, and that is somewhat generous. Don't Buy It, Read It on the newsstand.