Should Emmanuelle Alt Leave Vogue Paris?

[Deleted member 7575]

I actually prefer Alt's Vogue over Roitfeld's. I don't think any editor has made looking and dressing like a real woman so chic and and desirable (Except for maybe The Gentlewoman's Penny Martin and Jonathan Kaye)... and I think that's a very powerful and important statement in this day and age. Bravo to her, hope she keeps going at it.

 

[Creative]

The results of the poll are really surprising: almost half of the survey group think she should leave. Besides, if the question had been asked in a different way, the results would have been even more negative for Emmanuelle considering many people who voted 'No' aren't satisfied with her work...

The repetition of models is really killing her. Vogue Paris always had their favourites, but having Kate four times in less than two years is ridiculous (rumor has it that she'll cover one issue with Naomi for spring, lensed by M&M).

Furthermore, she's just recycling every photographer and every model Carine used under her leadership. Alt should make and effort and bring something fresh...

 

[vogue28]

One thing that I cannot deny Emmanuelle Alt has done at Vogue Paris is compile a fresh magazine. There's no hints of Carine, well, except for the odd boob or two. Everything from the layout and amount of white throughout gives the magazine an overall fresh, rejuvenated and innovative feel.

Alt might use her favourite models, but who wouldn't? I would. She knows these girls deliver and does support the newbies also. Janice Alida, Kristina Salinovic and Nadja Bender have been present inside a few consecutive issues.

I believe the whole reason for Carine's departure was the make the magazine commercial. Emmanuelle has done just that. She delivers wearable outfits, shoot after shoot. I found her vision to become clear within the first issue.

David Bellemere and Hans Feurer have become regular contributors too. Alt isn't just going to wipe-out the photographers that have made French Vogue over the years. She's doing her bit, with asking new photographers to shoot editorials. I love what she's doing and I look forward to each month - just as I did when Carine Roitfeld was editor-in-chief.

 

[Deleted member 116957]

I just want to add, while I don't love Alt, I'm really starting to notice that the magazine is really starting to show her viewpoint and I think her vision for the magazine is getting a bit stronger, especially since the September 2012 issue. That issue kind of brought everything together for me about what she's been trying to do and where she wants to go with the magazine.

 

[Alyssa-K]

I like Emmanuelle Alt's fashion more than I like Carine Roitfeld's. With Roitfeld it was pretty often vulgar, and not chic as they called it. To me, many editorials were just tacky as hell.

But I feel like the magazine is kind of repeating itself nowadays, and that the models are pretty much dressed the way Emmanuelle Alt would dress. Moreover, many people have said here that Vogue Paris now has a fresher look, but to me it just looks exactly like L'Officiel now, and it used to be better than L'Officiel to me... Now they are just almost the same.

 

[Creative]

Moreover, many people have said here that Vogue Paris now has a fresher look, but to me it just looks exactly like L'Officiel now, and it used to be better than L'Officiel to me... Now they are just almost the same.

Yes, it's a bad and watered-down version of what it used to be. Besides, the contributors aren't as A list as they were four of five years ago, she uses new and 'cheaper' photographers just to fill the content (she doesn't rely on them for the main editorials or the covers, just for the infinite and unimportant silly sections).

Mert and Marcus shot their first Vogue cover under Carine... I don't see Alt giving this opportunity to those filler photographers she uses. Emmanuelle is terribly blasé and bourgeois to make such a thing...

Carine used to give two consecutive Vogue covers to new models, she discovered new girls, new photographers, created hype around certain designers... Everything felt way more passionate and genuine. With Emmanuelle at the helm I feel everything she does is just to content her bosses.


And I wonder why Anja and Natasha weren't already given a cover. I thought they were going to be among her first choices... How weird.

 

[vogue28]

Most of your points I agree with, Creative. Although I have to disagree with the "silly sections" of the magazine comment. C'est Vogue (which it's now titled) is the most copied section of the magazine.. ever. It's trickled on down into most other editions of Vogue. German, Russian and Australian have done adaptions to name a few. C'est Vogue is genius, putting focus on a product, making it desirable, meaning readers will go out and purchase the featured item. The Miss Vogue segment caters to the younger demographic and features the more affordable, wearable clothes. Commercial as it seems to others, Emmanuelle has hit the nail on the head.

 

[justaguy]

While I'm not in love with Alt at the helm of Vogue Paris, I can certainly appreciate some of the freshness she's brought to the magazine. And as, Vogue28, so eloquently stated regarding the, "odd boob or two", she has definitely "cleaned" up the magazine.

Now I loved Roitfeld's direction, but things had just gotten too predictable. Too much of the same thing, especially with the nudity. I'm not a prude by any means, but it almost was too much and distracted from the story. The magazine reminded me of everything I read about Vreeland that led to her demise at US Vogue; too over the top and not catering to today's women.

While I don't think Alt is quite there just yet, I do like the direction so far and look forward her continued leadership.

 

[Creative]

25 Magazine S/S 12 - Vogue Paris March 2013

Harper's Bazaar June 1994 - Vogue Paris June/July 2012

Vogue Paris 2007 - Vogue Paris December/January 2012-2013

Vogue Paris August 2012 - Vogue March 1981

Vogue Italia February 1989 Vogue Paris June/July 2011

^those links redirect to a very interesting thread in the Magazines subforum. I thought it was appropriate and interesting for this topic to point out some editorials published during Alt's tenure that were inspired by other people's work.

 

[HeatherAnne]

^ I think we could to this with any magazine, to be fair...

...but, I do think to myself when I see people like Anja Rubik doing beautiful and innovative things with her new magazine 25 that maybe Emmanuelle wasn't the best choice, maybe someone from the outside would have breathed more life into Vogue Paris. Look at Vogue Australia, Kristie Clements left and Edwina McCann came over from Harper's Bazaar Australia and hasn't missed a beat in taking a good magazine and making it even more exciting. While Alt continues to struggle from month-to-month, people [not me!] liked seeing someone new this month on the cover of VP with Suvi, but then all quickly seemed bored and dismayed by the contents of the magazine. We're going on 2 years now, and it's basically the same ol', predictable, snooze fest from her.

 

[arlekindearrabal]

Yes, it's a bad and watered-down version of what it used to be. Besides, the contributors aren't as A list as they were four of five years ago, she uses new and 'cheaper' photographers just to fill the content (she doesn't rely on them for the main editorials or the covers, just for the infinite and unimportant silly sections).

Mert and Marcus shot their first Vogue cover under Carine... I don't see Alt giving this opportunity to those filler photographers she uses. Emmanuelle is terribly blasé and bourgeois to make such a thing...

Carine used to give two consecutive Vogue covers to new models, she discovered new girls, new photographers, created hype around certain designers... Everything felt way more passionate and genuine. With Emmanuelle at the helm I feel everything she does is just to content her bosses.


And I wonder why Anja and Natasha weren't already given a cover. I thought they were going to be among her first choices... How weird.

Totally agree with everything you've said so far about Emmanuelle's tenure at VP. Especially the part about wanting to please her bosses

Another thing that bugs me about her work in the magazine is the almost complete lack of diversity in her model choices. I thought somewhere down the road someone like Joan Smalls would get a cover, but so far her cover choices have been (apart prom predictable) totally lacking diversity.

Also, for example, this August 2012 ed with Anais Mali, branding her a 'feral cat', completely baffles me. What's happened to the Vogue Paris that dedicated an entire issue to the exquisite Liya Kebede, and put a bearded MtoF crossdresser on its cover? Among many other diversity coups.

 

[Creative]

This thread has to be revived after the covers and boring issues she has been delivering this year. It doesn’t get any worse than this. It really doesn’t. She is the least talented person working in a fashion magazine I've ever known.

Her covers this year so far:



models.com, listal.com

How on earth could someone at Vogue Paris think April’s, May’s and August’s covers were ‘right’? They aren’t even ‘wrong’ done in a funny way.


And I’m going to repeat that she’s just beyond boring with her cover subjects:

Number of covers published under her leadership: 26 (she had 3 in September 2012).

Kate Moss: 4 issues
Daria Werbowy: 4 issues
Gisele Bundchen: 2 issues
Isabeli Fontana: 2 issues
Lara Stone: 2 issues
Girls/women who were never featured in the cover of Vogue Paris before: 5 (Charlotte Casiraghi, Arizona Muse, Andreea Diaconu, Carla Bruni and Suvi Koponen)


So, out of her 26 covers, 14 featured the same five models. That means that five models got more than the half of Alt's covers as editor-in-chief (which is incredible). And it also means that the number of covers with new people to the magazine is almost the same as Kate’s covers. How tiring.


And in terms of cover photographers she introduced no novelty. She has been using the same ones Carine used: M&M, I&V, Testino, Sorrenti and Sims. With the difference that Carine had a little bit more variety: Demarchelier, Weber, Richardson, McDean, Knight… and let’s not forget that she gave M&M the opportunity to shoot their first Vogue cover ever.


The worst of it is that after years and years of buying Vogue Paris without skipping a single issue, I decided to give up on it a while ago, and I feel I didn’t miss anything…

 

[liberty33r1b]

^I agree with everything. I stopped buying French Vogue when she became editor, the last issue I bought was the last one Carine did. I always loved her work, but nowadays when I see an issue at the newsstand I just quickly scan it but never buy because it's just too dull and predicable. now I don't even care who's on the cover...

 

[Chanelcouture09]

Alright then... a question for all of the anti-emmanuelle/pro-carine people here... which of you have bought CR Fashion Book? since her issues themselves have garnered huge criticism in themselves.

 

[TianSoFine]

This thread has to be revived after the covers and boring issues she has been delivering this year. It doesn’t get any worse than this. It really doesn’t. She is the least talented person working in a fashion magazine I've ever known.

Her covers this year so far:

I quite like all of the ones you've posted aside from Isabeli's. I never really cared for Carine's VP and I think some of my favourite covers from Carine's era turned out to be done by Emmanuelle. To each their own, I suppose.

 

[Creative]

Alright then... a question for all of the anti-emmanuelle/pro-carine people here... which of you have bought CR Fashion Book? since her issues themselves have garnered huge criticism in themselves.

This is not an anti-Emmanuelle/pro-Carine thread though. I’ve stated previously that Carine became stucked in her latest years as editor-in-chief. The whole magazine lost some freshness… and it needed a change. Although even in those ‘bad’ days everything felt one million times more genuine and passionate than now, and she managed to stay relevant. It’s not even fair for Emmanuelle to compare her to Carine. Roitfeld was the responsible to turn Vogue Paris into the world’s leading fashion magazine, she created a new look and marked a whole era. The only thing Emmanuelle has done is annoying tfsers.

I don’t really like what Carine has been doing in her own fashion magazine. But… is that relevant to this thread?

I quite like all of the ones you've posted aside from Isabeli's. I never really cared for Carine's VP and I think some of my favourite covers from Carine's era turned out to be done by Emmanuelle. To each their own, I suppose.

The fact is that she’s no longer the fashion director of the magazine but the editor-in-chief. She holds a new position now. We aren’t talking about what she did in the past, but about what she’s doing since she took the reigns from Carine. It would be like saying that Carine made Vogue Paris the most exciting magazine of its time if CR fashion book was criticized; kind of pointless. It’s obvious that the work of Carine as editor-in-chief of French Vogue is quite different from her CR’s work.

Furthermore, I really doubt that the pictures chosen for your favourites covers were selected by Emmanuelle. It’s been proved that she has a terrible eye for choosing the right image for a cover.



On another note, I totally despise the argument of some people who say that “she’s trying to make the magazine more commercial”. It is really absurd and I hate that economic-conscious approach.

First of all, being deliberatively 'commercial' doesn’t necessarily mean the magazine is going to be successful. In fact, Carine wasn’t considered ‘commercial’ (hate this word!) and the circulation rose nearly 45 percent between 2000 and 2010, and by 2005, the advertising revenue rose to 60 percent (which was the best year for advertisement sales since the 80s).

Besides, being commercial doesn’t mean you have to come up with awful covers and editorials. You can balance commerciality and creativity too.

 

[Chanelcouture09]

^Of course it's relevant because there are constant comparisons between the two when both are known for two completely different aesthetics, whether you yourself has mentioned Carine or not, others have and the question was asked vaguely not necessarily aimed at one individual.

The balance between commercial and creative? In the state of the collections at the moment it's almost impossible to create something creative without relying heavily on photoshop and when publications do rely on photoshop they are called out for their use of it, so it's almost impossible for any of them to win.
Yes, Carine's figures were impressive but that wasn't solely achieved by herself, there was a machine behind her and that whole cool factor of 'Team Vogue Paris' that a lot of us bought into, which when looking back, most of the pictures of 'Team Vogue Paris' at the shows were mainly based around Emmanuelle and Geraldine (with a book being released of their street style pictures subsequently).

What I find rather amusing is the people constantly moaning about each and every issue she's putting out (and every other publication, unless it features their favourite model) yet fail to address what would be an improvement. It's like that quote 'don't come to me with a problem, come to me with a solution'.

So what is actually missing from the issues? Variety? she gave us Andreaa for June/July for crying out loud.

 

[vogue28]

Seriously, Emmanuelle and her team must be doing something right.. because just about every single magazine which is on offer today, continues to emulate their aesthetic - from layout to story ideas. There are multiple publications which have copied the sections outta' Vogue Paris also.

I am pleasantly surprised at the results of the poll, though. It seems the majority would want to see Alt leave Vogue - which is sad. I would hate to learn people who were interested in my magazine would want to see me out. From what was floating around online regarding Carine's departure (the bosses wanting a more commercial magazine), Emmanuelle has done just right. She's brought us wearable editorials, story after story, the focus being on the clothes and that's it. Which is, really, what a magazine like Vogue is all about. Yeah, most would argue it's about the fantasy, but I think that's rubbish. Vogue's a business.. a business needs to sell, sell, sell. I recall Anna Wintour saying Vogue's like a brand.. like either Nike or Coca-Cola.

 

[Kite]

This thread if actually quite cruel.

None of the people slating her have the slightest chance of firing her and at the end of the day, she was chosen to replace Carrine. Thats it. Good or bad, its a magazine.

People constantly complain about Anna Wintour shoving Celebrities on the cover of America Vogue but no one slates her saying she is doing a 'bad job'.

I feel everyone in this thread should get on with their lives and wait for the next months cover to surface and just let Emmanuelle do whatever the hell she wants.

If one day, someone in this thread becomes EIC of Vogue Paris...then we can all take a poll and ask you to leave because we hate your work, call you a talentless person and slate whatever you're doing? Sound fair? Ok, carry on.

Fashion Changes....if it didn't...Not one of us would have a job.

 

[Thefrenchy]

^ I never get that kind of argument because if you follow that kind of logic, you cannot criticise anything (on this forum, or even in real life) unless you're directly involved with it.

Do I think she's a bad EIC? Yes. Do I think the words "Vogue Paris" do not resonate the same way since she's become EIC? Yes. Will I renew my subscription? No.
I think she was a terrible choice, for the only reason that she is a stylist, not an editor. Everything she has produced so far as EIC fell completely flat and had a serious lack of depth. If she doesn't go, they could at least hire a proper team to shake things up and make that magazine interesting again.