Love #16.5 F/W 2016.16 Remix Issue : Madonna by Mert Alas

[vogue28]

Can't even remember the last issue of Love I bought or was interested in, and Madonna by Mert Alas is definitely something I'm NOT interested in. How overdone is this, at this stage? Everything here just reeks of desperation.

 

[versustito]

I love the cover

 

[Les_Sucettes]

Don't like it! What's with the infantalising? I'd like to know which 50-odd woman still suck on her thumb.

The redeeming aspect of this is NO BONDAGE in sight so far, and the inclusion of M&M, somewhat a reprieve from Willy Vanderperre! I'm sure Madonna probably demanded them though. They really went to town with the retouching, from the face to the hands.

I agree. This is simply demeaning.
Maybe they/or Madonna decided that by hidding her face, making it informal, and exposing the picture would stop the retouching controversies. Simply pathetic in their transparency.
It's ridiculous that magazines still haven't found a way of photographing older women without retouching them into oblivion. It can't be that difficult, a 50 year old woman will only get a fashion cover if she's a person of substance, if you cannot capture their spark and beauty you are simply not doing your job very well.

 

[Phuel]

I adore her. She’s the one that not just set sailed a thousand ships, but she’s the captain of them all. None of these other lessers will ever come close to what she has paved: Artistically, socially and politically. But this Love thing is such a transparent attempt to impress the kids. She’s so much better than this. And who are they kidding with the no-makeup and no huge production gimmick? She’s still retouched to the nine. It’s really all too common for a shoot to be touted as au naturel all the while retouching is still applied (heavily, but skillfully).

And Rocco. Useless, I’m afraid.

(The thumbsucking thing is apparently some inside joke with her since she’s been posing like that since 1998. Witness the “Nothing Really Matters” video.)

 

[Benn98]

I adore her. She’s the one that not just set sailed a thousand ships, but she’s the captain of them all. None of these other lessers will ever come close to what she has paved: Artistically, socially and politically. But this Love thing is such a transparent attempt to impress the kids. She’s so much better than this. And who are they kidding with the no-makeup and no huge production gimmick? She’s still retouched to the nine. It’s really all too common for a shoot to be touted as au naturel all the while retouching is still applied (heavily, but skillfully).

And Rocco. Useless, I’m afraid.

(The thumbsucking thing is apparently some inside joke with her since she’s been posing like that since 1998. Witness the “Nothing Really Matters” video.)

Thanks for the thumbsucking explanation, I'll be rewatching it as it's one of her best videos. In fact, the entire Ray of Light album (Skin/Sky fits Heaven etc) is just about the last time she bothered with producing something musically solid. Everything else after that went downhill.

I think you'll find that a celebrity of Madonna's stature will in most cases exact full photo approval. No doubt both the concept and images were approved by her, and knowing how obsessed she is about her image, SHE probably sanctioned the aggressive retouching. It's funny how so many continue to regard her as this demi-God, when she appears to be sinking in insecurity while desperately clinging onto faded youth. I feel like despite her progressiveness and much praised reinvention efforts, she's simply not comfortable in her own skin. This is no longer 'reactionary' or 'showing them the middle finger', it's just blatant insecurities surfacing. And that's also fine because she's human, just wish she'd stop parading it as gimmicky art!

To that end I agree with Les Sucettes! It seems older women are often forced into one of two trajectories - either classy and prim against a grey wall in Carolina Herrerra, or the cougar type, desperately trying to be cool, t*ts in your face, knickers in full view. Surely there must be a middle ground?? Where are the Charlotte Ramplings and Helen Mirrens? Even Cher looked better than this!

 

[GlamVal]

I think is not the finale cover

 

[ThatGuyPaul]

I knew there'd be age comments.

 

[lelaid]

^ That's a given. She's a lightening rod for agism.

Either way I'm a huge Madonna fan but I really dislike this cover. Judged on what Katie said I think this was seriously shot with an iPhone (unless I read that wrong), like really? You get Madonna and you shoot her cover shot with a phone?!

 

[AD011620]

Thanks for the thumbsucking explanation, I'll be rewatching it as it's one of her best videos. In fact, the entire Ray of Light album (Skin/Sky fits Heaven etc) is just about the last time she bothered with producing something musically solid. Everything else after that went downhill.

!

It's funny how much people claim to know her or her musical career.

Music was a very solid album... Confessions on the Dancefloor was a pure masterpiece, producing a single that went No. 1 in 36 countries...(and that's when albums really mattered) And if she wasn't in her 40ies, it would have done even better. Both albums sold milions and had amazing reception...

Thumbsucking! Do I like it? Not really but people should do whatever pleases them at any age as long as it doesn't violate other's rights.

So much judgement... But what I adore about her is that she does not give a d*mn and I only wish I was that strong.

 

[honeycombchild]

Re Confessions On A Dancefloor, if she wasn't in her 40s it would have sold more? I'm really not sure that's the case at all to be honest. It sold well and I imagine it sold just as well as it would have done had Madonna been in her thirties at the time? I find that logic slightly odd in an argument apposing ageism. As long as she produces good music I imagine Madonna will always sell, but for me the issue is she isn't even producing good music and in stead has become some comical caricature of what she once was, with a quite frankly, rather desperate need to be considered 'young' and 'relevant' still, rather than simply celebrating the age she is.

 

[lewak]

Are they pushing something that's out in a month's time because the new Love magazine has fallen so flat???

Sponsored by Marc Jacobs? So it's officially not a real magazine, just a vanity exercise for two people.... with old Madonna roped-in in support

I quite like the thumb sucking cover, but what I really want to see is the new issue of Pop....

 

[Luxx]

Music was a very solid album... Confessions on the Dancefloor was a pure masterpiece, producing a single that went No. 1 in 36 countries...(and that's when albums really mattered) And if she wasn't in her 40ies, it would have done even better. Both albums sold milions and had amazing reception...

I'm here for this Confessions on the Dancefloor truth. One of the best albums of her career and an incredible high point for her. Hung Up still sounds so fresh.

 

[Phuel]

Musical preferences aside --and I think Music and American Life were gutsy, leading, impossibly rich productions that were unlike anything that the rest of the Pop world were offering at the time, and still very Pop. Listen to 2000’s “What It Feels Like For A Girl” today and it seamlessly fits into the current conversation of the women’s movement. Or 2003’s “Nobody Knows Me”, which may as will be Madonna as the all-seeing Oracle of Delphi valuing her individuality and warning of the coming of InstaCulture. She was a leader at the time and effortlessly shrugging off the need for the kidz’ approval. Which of course, made them adore her for that confidence then…

I wished with these magazines, and knowing how her age would always be the topic of conversation with her (having just turned 58 yesterday), especially when she’s posing still so… provocatively, she would be daring, confident enough to reject all the retouching, and all the filter on her Instagram pics that has her face so bright, she may as well be a lightbulb. And show your hands as a defiance and as a statement of not bending to the shames of aging. She’s got the biggest balls of them all, but when it comes to her aging physicality, she’s a hypocrite by retouching her images to death. Don’t be afraid.

(And Benn— I love love love the video for “Nothing Really Matters’ as well. Such a celebration of life and death in such a creative, original, playful and impossibly visionary fashion. And she’s gorgeous— looking like Gong Li as Hatsumomo in her Gaultier kimono.)

 

[AD011620]

Re Confessions On A Dancefloor, if she wasn't in her 40s it would have sold more? I'm really not sure that's the case at all to be honest. It sold well and I imagine it sold just as well as it would have done had Madonna been in her thirties at the time? I find that logic slightly odd in an argument apposing ageism. As long as she produces good music I imagine Madonna will always sell, but for me the issue is she isn't even producing good music and in stead has become some comical caricature of what she once was, with a quite frankly, rather desperate need to be considered 'young' and 'relevant' still, rather than simply celebrating the age she is.

I didn't say the album didn't sell well. I said if radios played her music the album would have produced more successful singles. Especially, in the US.

You completely misunderstood my comment re-ageism. I won't even offend myself by trying to reject your claim but it is a fact that radios have ageist policies...

And finally, the Confessions is not a masterpiece because of the numbers it has sold but because it is a very solid musical product. Erotica didn't sell that much but for me it is one of her best albums.

 

[kokobombon]

It´s a beautiful image, for the 1998 Ray of Light Madonna. The thumb sucking is so pointless though... I rather she was sucking c**k on the cover, that would be a provoking image!

 

[Benn98]

It´s a beautiful image, for the 1998 Ray of Light Madonna. The thumb sucking is so pointless though... I rather she was sucking c**k on the cover, that would be a provoking image!

Just spat out my tea reading this!

 

[Les_Sucettes]

Madonna is the face of insecurity. It's quite ironic that the master of reinvention is totally paralysed by the fact she's not young anymore. Her music, her demeanour, her social media, everything about her is outdated, and the imagine she projects about being an older woman is relentlessly negative. Above all that's what really puts me off.
Said that, the fact that magazines play along with it, say more about the state of the press than about her. I can understand people posting Instagram pics with filters or tweaking their imperfections, it's part of the game, let's see who manages to post the best version of themselves. I do not do social media at all, but still i do not think i allowed anyone to take a picture of me without flash since 1999. But to see those cheap tricks applied on a magazine cover is the height of mediocrity. And this magazine has been nothing but that since the first issue.

 

[kokobombon]

Just spat out my tea reading this!

Too much?

she already played a major role in sexual revolution decades ago, now it seems so desperate that she still clings to it. Move on already! Or at least try to sell me sex from a 60 year old woman pov.

 

[Phuel]

I’d like to still believe she’s still pushing for— something of worth these days. The woman has contributed too much to pop art— and to the gay community, to be written off as just latching onto pop relevance. I wonder if this Love “candid polaroids” shoot is to coincide with this release/exhibit of Richard Corman’s newly-discovered “66 Polaroids” 1983 shoot with her in the fall?:

https://i-d.vice.com/en_us/article/madonna-young-1983-long-lost-polaroids-richard-corman

This is the Madonna— in her lace leggings under paint-splattered ripped jeans and army surplus tank top with the 300 black rubber bracelets is the Madonna I adore above all her other periods. It’s pure, raw style that no amount of money and team of stylists and haute couture designs can buy.

 

[kokobombon]

^I love those pics, she was just so cool and gorgeous! she´s still gorgeous but it´s ridiculous that her skin now looks almost the same that in those images.
Anyway, I still love her and I´m looking forward to her pics. Rocco´s I just don´t care about.